If you are aged 30 or more, then 50% of all human fossil fuel emissions happened during your lifetime. (by Neil Kaye)
Source: https://bsky.app/profile/infobeautiful.bsky.social/post/3kopcy5lddn2e
The graph highlights major percentiles, such as 75%.
The one that struck me though was the value for age 60, because that’s clearly when the graph starts to flatten out, which means it’s when things started to really grow.
And, as one would expect, it lines up pretty perfectly with the young end of the boomer generation. That is, those born ~1960 and earlier have overseen 80-90% of all global emissions.
And if you’re an early boomer ~1945-1950, then ~80% has happened since you’ve been able to vote.
People were using other fuels before they start using fossil fuels. Like wood. It is double whammy - more CO2 (less efficient burning) and no CO2 recapturing by those burned trees.
Oh no! Not the 680M or fewer people burning one of the less dense forms of carbon for home heating and cooking food! This is very noteworthy alongside industrial and motor usage of hydrocarbons that have to be extracted from under the ground and water for the population of now over 8 Billion!
Much more efficient per person though. Or per Joule of energy.