Compare the top 10% of that cohort against the rest

Top 10% emit 22 tons of CO2 per year per person [1].

8 billion * (10% * 22 tons - 1% * 50 tons) = 14 billion tons of CO2 per year, excluding the top 1%.

Share of total emissions:

Upper middle class (top 10% excluding top 1%): 39%

Lower middle class (top 50% excluding top 10%): 38%

when you create a graph like that without putting values on the axis it’s inherently misleading

No, it's a common way to present data in a popular scientific context.

the issue here is disproportionate impact from the minority.

No, as the graph shows, the issue is the disproportionate impact from the richest half of the population. Even without the top 1%, the remaining 50-99% percentiles emit far too much. Even without the top 10%, the 50-90% percentiles still emit far too much.

The downvotes on this post just goes to show that lemmy is overrun by a new generation of climate change deniers, denying not the phenomenon as such, but their own culpability in it.

But they'll get what's coming to them.