[lbo-talk] Bush tries to make joke: "Goodbye from world's biggest polluter!"

[John Thornton]

martin wrote:
>
> On Jul 12, 2008, at 11:29 AM, B. wrote:
>
>> When you think about it, it's appropriate in a literal
>> sense that the POTUS would try to physically assault
>> the air after making a joke about how horrible the US
>> treats the climate. You know, like "Take that, air!"
>
> However, as the FT piece posted earlier [Nicolas Stern's What Is To Be 
> Done on climate change] noted, "China's emissions per unit of gross 
> domestic product (at purchasing power parity) are double those of the 
> US and three times those of Japan." He might arguably have been wrong.
>
> martin 

This argument is crap.
The author is just looking for a way to make China more culpable than 
they are.
That is a very popular past time for many people right now.
Most of China's emissions are in the creation of crap for the west anyway.

The only truly fair metric is estimated CO2e per capita emissions since 
the dawn of the industrial revolution.
This makes Great Britain the number one polluter.
The reason this is the only fair metric is that developed countries have 
their economic foundations built upon prior CO2e emissions.
To deny other countries this same opportunity is grossly unfair.
Since the equivalent emissions of CO2e from developing countries would 
be catastrophic for everyone the developed world (US, Canada, Australia, 
Japan, Western Europe, the U.K.) needs to go carbon neutral immediately 
and then pay for the majority of the expenses to make the rest of the 
world carbon neutral. The developing countries get to emit all the CO2 
they want until the above countries are carbon neutral

I'd have to double check this but I believe in current per capita 
emissions Australia is the number one CO2e emitter, not the U.S.

John Thornton