It took the world’s richest 1% the first 10 days of 2026 to burn through their share of climate-changing emissions. Not to be outdone, the wealthiest 0.1% needed just three days to exhaust their annual carbon budget.

Oxfam dubbed Jan. 3 “Pollutocrat Day” to highlight how the super wealthy are disproportionately responsible for driving the climate crisis and inequality. The organization’s annual research keeps track of the greediest of the greedy.

People die, and the filthy rich profit. It’s disgusting.

The world’s top 100 oil and natural gas (methane) companies collectively banked more than $30 million every hour in unearned profit during the first month of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, according to an analysis published by The Guardian. ExxonMobil ($11 billion), Chevron ($9.2 billion), and Shell ($6.8 billion) were among the 10 biggest beneficiaries of this wartime bonanza, meaning, as The Guardian noted, key opponents of climate action continue to prosper — at the expense of many.

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods’ 2025 compensation was $33 million, down from $44.1 million in 2024. Chevron CEO Michael Wirth’s 2025 compensation was $26.8 million, down 18% from the prior year. Shell CEO Wael Sawan’s 2025 compensation was $18.47 million, up from $11.6 million in 2024.

The top U.S. utility CEOs are also flush with cash. Last year they enjoyed a collective 16% pay raise, to an average of $12.3 million in compensation, even as the rest of us shoulder the pain from high energy bills spurred by rising inflation, an illegal war, data center growth, White House corruption, and pure greed.

In some parts of the country utility bills have increased as much 40% since 2021, and utilities nationwide shut off power to customers 13 million times last year, according to a new review of industry financial documents.

The Energy and Policy Institute, an industry watchdog, also reported that some utility executives received pay raises despite failing to meet performance standards, including for outages. Many executives were also provided private jets, condominiums, and other perks paid for by us.

Corporate greed has no bounds.

In late March, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) struck down the return on equity (ROE), or allowed profits, that New England’s electric transmission utilities have been earning on their power line investments. The federal agency found previous rates of return to be “unjust and unreasonable” and required the utilities to refund as much as $1.5 billion in overpayments to New England electricity customers dating back more than a decade.

Despite this spring reduction, the utilities recently proposed to FERC that they should receive an even higher new rate of guaranteed return on equity. Rather than adopting the 9.57% rate that FERC had specified, the utilities proposed a rate of 11.39%.

This proposed ROE, if adopted, would result in billions of dollars in additional charges for New England electricity customers that would significantly increase the cost of electricity across the region, according to the Acadia Center.

CEO pay across all sectors worldwide in 2025 increased 20 times faster than worker pay, according to a new analysis from Oxfam and the International Trade Union Confederation. The average CEO received $8.4 million in total compensation last year compared to $7.6 million in 2024.

When adjusted for inflation, global worker pay declined 12% between 2019 and 2025, the equivalent of 108 days of free work during that time. In comparison, CEO compensation increased by 54%.

The super wealthy need to be prescribed appetite suppressants. Their gluttony is killing us.

The emissions of the richest 1% generated in one year alone will cause an estimated 1.3 million heat-related deaths by the end of the century, according to Oxfam’s reporting and research.

Decades of research by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson found that higher inequality is associated with higher crime, deteriorating public health, higher addiction rates, lower educational attainment, and more pollution.

The worst consequences of Richie Rich ravenousness are felt by those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis, such as people in low-wealth countries, Indigenous groups, and those with the least.

While the filthy rich jet set; lounge on superyachts as regular yachts trail behind carrying “all the toys for the parent yacht;” build oversized second, third, and fourth homes; and get mentioned in the Epstein Files, the global economic damage of their collective selfishness could add up to $44 trillion by mid-century.

The world’s wealthiest 10% account for half of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to Oxfam.

Besides polluting the planet at an unsustainable and thoughtless rate, the wealthy also invest in the most polluting industries. A billionaire carries, on average, an investment portfolio in corporations that will produce nearly 2 million tons of CO2 annually, according to Oxfam — roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 400,000 gasoline-powered cars.

The wealthy and the corporations they run hold far too much power, which gives them unjust influence over policymaking and allows them to dilute climate action. They abuse people and the natural world for profit.

The result? They are killing the planet’s life-support systems and deepening inequality.

Repeated attempts to make the wealthy pay their fair share for the damage they cause are consistently dismissed by the people we elect. Richie Rich’s pathetic enablers come up with all kinds of reasons not to bother millionaires, billionaires, and soon to be trillionaires: they’ll move out of state; they’re job creators; they are unfairly maligned; they are gods.

During a recent Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce legislative luncheon, raising taxes on the state’s wealthiest dominated the panel session between chamber president Laurie White and legislative leaders.

White regurgitated the all-to-familiar talking points, including warning of an exodus of top earners. She urged the legislators to consider the “everyday millionaire” — a longtime local resident whose income could “accidentally” exceed $1 million when factoring in real estate appreciation, retirement benefits, and personal savings.

The Rhode Island Current’s Nancy Lavin reported the chamber’s longstanding opposition to a millionaire’s tax crystallized this year, after Gov. Dan McKee included an extra 3% tax on income over $1 million in his fiscal 2027 budget proposal. Some 2,300 Rhode Island millionaires — 0.02% of the state’s population — would see their taxes rise from 5.99% to 8.99% starting Jan. 1.

The Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce has published a downloadable/copy-and-paste letter, so millionaires and their lobbyists can let General Assembly members know how upset they are.

“This proposal sends the wrong signal,” according to the letter. “Rhode Island should be focused on retaining employers and attracting new investment — not creating more uncertainty.”

The status quo, which caters to the whims of the wealthy, is creating uncertainty around humanity’s future, and the future of other life on this warming sphere. But don’t expect the wealthy and their PR hacks to give it any thought.

In a letter to the editor published in February in Newport This Week, Erin Donovan-Boyle, president of the Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce, and Matthew Vargas, chair of the organization’s Government Affairs Committee, whine that the proposal to raise Rhode Island’s state income tax rate on millionaires by 3 percentage points “risks un­dermining hard-won progress.”

Their lobbyist letter essentially paints a picture of the wealth class being responsible for all that is holy and good. They warn that increasing the income tax on the wealth class could make them flee.

“High earners are mobile, particularly in a coastal region where proximity to neighboring states makes re­location relatively easy,” they wrote. (Massachusetts has 4% surtax on annual taxable income exceeding $1 million. Connecticut’s top personal income tax rate for high-earners is 6.99%. This rate applies to individuals with income more than $500,000 and couples filing jointly with income more than $1 million.)

They also implied the rest of us will wither and die if they move away.

“Their capital supports local payrolls, nonprofit organiza­tions, seasonal and year-round em­ployment, and the broader small business ecosystem,” they wrote. “If those individuals shift resi­dency or investment elsewhere, the impact will be felt locally through reduced spending, de­layed expansion, weaker philan­thropic support, and fewer job opportunities.”

The wealth gap in this country is a chasm, a climate crisis is raging, our already-unfair health care system is being gutted further, social safety nets are being torn asunder, public education is being dismantled, homes and food are unaffordable, regime goons are terrorizing the powerless, and high-earners control all the levels of power. The wealth class is largely responsible for these crises.

Beyond the make-believe world carefully crafted by lobbyists and marketing professionals, the wealthy and their enablers treat the rest of us as nothing more than consumers of their crap, servants to their demands, their cleanup crew, their court jesters.

The 1,600 lobbyists from fossil fuel corporations who attended the most recent U.N. Climate Change Conference, in Brazil last spring, was more than any delegation apart from the host nation. The U.S. regime didn’t even send anyone to the conference.

The 2026 World Inequality Report shows that some 56,000 people — 0.001% of the global population — possess three times more wealth than the poorest half of humankind.

In 2024, the wealth of the world’s 2,769 billionaires grew by $2 trillion, three times faster than in 2023 and amounting to $5.7 billion a day. To protect their wealth, the greedy and their elected enablers push to weaken child labor laws and work feverishly to deregulate artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and online gambling.

“While American families struggle to pay the bills due to higher tariffs and cuts in public benefits, Trump’s billionaire cronies have never been wealthier,” according to Americans for Tax Fairness. “Billionaires bet big on Trump and Republicans in the 2024 elections.”

The nonprofit noted that after only a year back in office the regime delivered a 22% boost to billionaire wealth, with 32 MAGA billionaire individuals and families, including the Waltons (Walmart), the Kochs (fossil fuels and chemicals), and Elon Musk (AI porn), spending $1.4 billion to influence the Monster. Two of the wealthy donors (Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon) were also rewarded with prominent positions within the regime, which has worked madly to end Affordable Care Act subsidies so health insurance premiums skyrocket for millions with the least, because those with the most need more.

MAGAs in Congress voted to slash $125 million in funding to replace toxic lead drinking water pipes, which are a particular threat to children, because their corporate daddies need another tax break.

“Time and time again, the research shows that governments have a very clear and simple route to drastically slash carbon emissions and tackle inequality: by targeting the richest polluters,” according to Oxfam’s Nafkote Dabi. “By cracking down on the gross carbon recklessness of the super-rich, global leaders have an opportunity to put the world back on track for climate targets and unlock net benefits for people and the planet.”

Yet, those we put in power continue to fail us, and ultimately their own families.

There are solutions, but little political will to implement them. Here are just a few:

Increase taxes on income and wealth of the rich. If they are going to eat the most, they should pay more, way more.

Excess profit taxes on Big Oil. If they are going to profit off making us sick and degrading the natural world, they should pay more, way more. They certainly shouldn’t be rewarded because the regime started an illegal war.

Ban or punitively tax carbon-intensive luxury items such as superyachts and private jets. Both are massive greenhouse gas emitters. There are about 6,000 superyachts — vessels more than 100 feet long — at sea. That total has quadrupled in the past three decades. The annual CO2 emissions of the top 300 superyachts is about 285,000 tons. In 2023 alone, private jets produced about 19.5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Increasing taxes on high-earners in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut who are paid more than a million dollars annually isn’t unreasonable.

As Oxfam and many others have repeatedly noted, we need to build an equitable economic system that puts people and the planet first. Neoliberal economics has put us in a death spiral.

Frank Carini can be reached at [email protected]. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.