I stand corrected, the US is not one of the smallest producers of CO
2 emissions. I meant to say that the US has already taken significant measures to reduce their emissions over the past few years.
However, the ranking shown in those charts is based on a "per capita" basis. IMO, it doesn't matter where these emissions are coming from, it's the fact that the total volume of those emissions is much greater in China and India. It would be more meaningful to see how a country ranks based on "actual" emissions rather than as we normally see these things presented by the media. Unfortunately, those charts only go through 2011 so we can't see what the numbers are for the past four years which would be very beneficial in identifying those countries who are actually reducing their CO
2 emissions. In 2011, the top five were:
- China - 9,019,518
- USA - 5,305,570
- India - 2,074,345
- Russia - 1,808,073
- Japan - 1,187,657
If you look at the numbers for 2006 through 2010, it appears that most of the world had an increasing volume of emissions. Interestingly, the US, Canada and some areas of Europe show a reduction of emissions during that time period while both China and India are increasing and continue to do so through 2011 which is as far as the charts go.
The other issue with these numbers is how they were collected. Do we know for a fact that these numbers are valid and have not been massaged, like the known temperature values that are being reported in the climate change arena? At this point in time, I am still very skeptical of any worldwide data collection that is purported to be "official data".
The data being presented in this thread comes from "The World Bank" which has as its stated goal to "End extreme poverty within a generation and boost shared prosperity". A grand goal, for sure, but I question the 'boost shared prosperity' part and wonder if that is just one more "wealth distribution" project where they take from those who have and give it to those who don't have?
