The $70 Trillion Debt

A Canada site reports:

While much of the focus is on having wealthy governments pay their fair share, a new study argues that fossil fuel companies should pay “climate reparations,” too.

In a recent peer-reviewed paper published in One Earth, researchers used data on emissions tied to the world’s 21 top polluting companies to determine just how much and landed on a total of $5.4 trillion over a period of 26 years. The largest sum would come from Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, which would be responsible for $1.1 trillion, or $42.7 billion per year, followed by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron....

The researchers also decided that companies from less wealthy countries, including Gazprom and Mexico’s Pemex, should pay only half the sum their emissions would suggest. Those from developing nations, including Algeria, India and Venezuela, were deemed not responsible for reparations at all.

“It seems arbitrary and it is,” Heede said.

The paper says the fossil fuel debt is $70 trillion.

CNN:

In the first quarter of 2019, the United States’ total public- and private-sector debt amounted to nearly $70 trillion, according to research by the Institute of International Finance. Federal government debt and liabilities of private corporations excluding banks both hit new highs.

Those are not the only $70 trillion debts:

In his book, Rochester breaks down how racism and discrimination have cost Black Americans trillions of dollars over the course of several generations — $70 trillion, by Rochester's estimate — and how discrimination has created the massive racial wealth gap that exists today.

Are all these debts $70 trillion by coincidence? Or is that just the biggest number that economists can conceive of?

Saying that the oil companies owe us $70T is saying that we would be $70T richer if no oil or gas had ever been extracted from the ground. No, that is absurd. The oil and gas has made us $70T richer.

Without fossil fuels, we would all be farmers, and not have any modern conveniences. Several billion people would have starved to death.

Possibly we would be $70T richer if Blacks had never come to North America.