The trouble is that notably cutting personal carbon emissions comes at a fairly high individual cost, but has basically no effect unless a whole lot of other people do it, too. If they don’t, you’ve harmed yourself significantly for effectively no reason—no meaningful good was accomplished.
The greater direct effect at much lower real personal cost, for billionaires, plus the greater likelihood of their influencing others to follow suit, makes the calculus a bit different for them.
>The tragedy of the commons is a real sonofabitch.
The "tragedy of the commons" is a propaganda tool used to justify privatization of the commons. The commons were reasonably well-managed until a small number of people decided to extract maximum profit from them (and damn the consequences).
The greater direct effect at much lower real personal cost, for billionaires, plus the greater likelihood of their influencing others to follow suit, makes the calculus a bit different for them.
The tragedy of the commons is a real sonofabitch.