The prosperous polluters: 20 billionaires with high carbon footprint

The rising level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been a point of concern for decades now and curbing carbon footprint, the total amount of greehouse gases emitted by an individual, has been looked at as a way of combating the onslaught of the heat-trapping gases.Like other things, there is a vast difference between the carbon footprint of a layman and the financially well-off tier of society. A calculation by The Conversation has listed 20 billionaires and the carbon footprint that resulted out of their activities in 2018 by using data to estimate the annual CO2 emissions of each house, aircraft, vehicle and yacht owned by these moguls. Let's take a look at who these prosperous polluters are:(Net worth of the billionaires are as per Forbes's real-time billionaires' list on Feb 23.)

20. Michael Bloomberg - CEO, Bloomberg L.P. | $54.9 billion - 23rd richest person | Carbon footprint: 1,782 tons of CO2

19. Elon Musk - CEO and Chairman, Tesla | $169.1 billion - 2nd richest person | Carbon footprint: 2,084 tons of CO2

18. Jeff Bezos | $185.6 billion - Richest person alive | Carbon footprint: 2,224 tons of CO2

17. Carlos Slim - Honorary Chairman, América Móvil | $63.2 billion - 20th richest person | Carbon footprint: 2,511 tons of CO2

16. Eric Schmidt - Former Google CEO | $19.1 billion - 102nd richest person | Carbon footprint: 3,185 tons of CO2

15. Giorgio Armani - Italian fashion designer | $7.9 billion - 302nd richest person | Carbon footprint: 3,980 tons of CO2

14. Tilman Fertitta - Chairman and CEO, Landry's | $4.2 billion - 699th richest person | Carbon footprint: 5,164 tons of CO2

13. Larry Page - Co-founder and board member, Google a| $89.5 billion - 7th richest person | Carbon footprint: 5,232 tons of CO2

12. Sergey Brin - Co-founder and board member, Google | $86.8 billion - 10th richest person | Carbon footprint: 6,864 tons of CO2

11. Michael Dell - Chairman and CEO, Dell | $43.3 billion - 30th richest person | Carbon footprint: 7,053 tons of CO2

10. Bill Gates - Co-founder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | $122.9 billion - 4th richest person | Carbon footprint: 7,408 tons of CO2

9. Laurene Powell Jobs - Founder and President, Emerson Collective | $22.3 billion - 87th richest person | Carbon footprint: 7,508 tons of CO2

8. Ronald Perelman - American banker and investor - MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated | $6.7 billion - 387th richest person | Carbon footprint: 7,544 tons of CO2

7. Larry Ellison- CTO and Founder, Oracle | $88.1 billion - 8th richest person | Carbon footprint: 9,166 tons of CO2

6. Ernesto Bertarelli - Swiss entrepreneur | $8.3 billion - 284th richest person | Carbon footprint: 10,014 tons of CO2

5. Ann Walton Kroenke - Walmart heir | $8.7 billion - 264th richest person | Carbon footprint: 10,043 tons of CO2

4. Bernard Arnault - Chairman and CEO, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton | $158.9 billion - 3rd richest person | Carbon footprint: 10,421 tons of CO2

3. Sheldon Adelson - CEO and Chairman, Las Vegas Sands | $29.8 billion - Deceased | Carbon footprint: 11,928 tons of CO2

2. David Geffen - Co-founder, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (Cl A) | $9.7 billion - 242nd richest person | Carbon footprint: 18,380 tons of CO2

1. Roman Abramovich - Owner, Millhouse LLC and Chelsea F.C. | $14.5 billion - 157th richest person | Carbon footprint: 31,199 tons of CO2