China clearly overtakes U.S. as leading emitter of climate-warming gases

[Mugu]

iht.com

China has now clearly overtaken the United States as the world's leading emitter of climate-warming gases, a new study has found. The increasing emissions from China - up 8 percent in the past year - accounted for two-thirds of the growth in global greenhouse gas emissions in 2007, the study found.

The report, released Friday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, is an annual study. Last year, for the first time, the researchers found that China had edged ahead of the United States as the world's leading emitter.

snip

China, like the United States, is heavily dependent on coal for its energy, and it has seen its most rapid growth in some of the world's most polluting industrial sectors, like cement, aluminum and plate glass. Twenty percent of China's emissions come from its cement kilns, which are essential for the country's construction boom and likely to be working overtime this year as the country prepares for the Olympics and rebuilds after a devastating earthquake.

That being said, the United States has clearly maintained its lead in carbon dioxide emissions per person. The average American is responsible for 19.4 tons, followed by Russia at 11.8 tons, Western Europe at 8.6 tons, China at 5.1 tons and India at 1.8 tons.



http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/13/business/emit.php?WT.mc_id=newsalert">Complete article

[jody]

1. Misleading! Per capita: U.S. 19.4 tons, Russia 11.8 tons, Western Europe 8.6 tons, China 5.1 tons,

and India 1.8 tons.

[Igel]

3. US isn't #1, unless you limit the set of countries.

China produces more than the US, but with a much larger population still produces less per capita.

The US produces on the order of 20 metric tonnes per capita (as of 2004: http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/SeriesDetail.aspx?srid=751&crid= ), which puts it at #1 among the top-emitting countries.

But to get the #1 rating, you really have to limit the set that we're #1 in to "top-emitting countries", so as to knock out those countries with higher per-capita emissions: Bahrain, UAE, Brunei, Aruba, etc. They're small, so even with higher emissions per capita they don't put out as much.

[jody]

4. My point is statistics can be misleading when one looks at totals versus per capita stats. n/t

[sandnsea]

2. That's why OUR CORPORATIONS

opposed Kyoto. They knew they couldn't pollute the US anymore, so they wanted to make sure there were plenty of third world countries to pollute.