The Few, The Green, The Proud

AHEAD OF THE CURVE IN MAKING C02 HISTORY

The New York Times'  Andy Revkin complains :

'Some libertarian critics have implied I’m supporting a Draconian push back to sweaters and bicycles (see Ron Bailey’s recent critique of my “Unnecessary Things” post). [UPDATE: Draconian by some of their standards, not mine.] Some environmentalists say I’m too gloomy about the chances that humanity will resolve to share responsibility for limiting climate risks.'

Like politics, all gloom is local. To keep Carbon Dioxide levels rising by a  part per million per year, everyone on Earth must burn fuel enough to provide  ~782 kilograms, or 1,745 pounds per capita. The citizens of many nations easily exceed this  ~ ¾ metric tonne criterion-- Americans generate over 20 tonnes of CO2   each,  Kazakhstanis over 13 , Israelis over 10. Even the French, sorely handicapped by their nuclear electric system, manage a respectable 6.

 Still, there are laggards, nations so backward that they are not pulling their weight in the race to keep up with nature as a source of climate change. Despite India's burgeoning economy, its billion citizens only managed to add a feeble 1.5 parts per million  of CO2 to their share of the world’s air last year, while Pakistan barely made the cut  with 1.02 parts per million.

Deep Greens of course esteem the Pakistani life style shockingly profligate in terms of greenhouse gas emission. They seek to stop and reverse increases in gases that tend to warm the planet, and applaud  Al Gore’s demand  for a 90% cut in US CO2 emissions by 2050.  This means surpassing the fuel economy of  sunny  Iraq  at ~ 3 tonnes per capita , or Cuba at ~2, and emulating the few, the proud nations that took Earth Day 1970 seriously, and  are showing the world the way things ought to be, providing  so-called ‘developed’ nations with an exemplary spectrum of  low carbon footprint  lifestyles.

 Which one the next president of the United States will elect to aim for is for democracy to determine, so before you vote, or emigrate, take your pick from this list of ten nations whose cool example America can follow into a Greenhouse gas and central heating free future :

Less Than 1 PPM Global CO2 Growth Per Year

      CO2 per capita  KG                     LIFE EXPECTANCY
 

• Paraguay        742                              78.0 

• Angola           505                               38.6

• Sudan              287                              50.3

• Zambia           204                              38.5

• Ethiopia        103                               50.4

>>1 PPM Global CO2 Growth Per Decade!

• Rwanda             63                 50.1

• Cambodia         39                 63.4

• Afghanistan     29                43.9

• Chad                  13                  48.3   

• Somalia               3                 50.7

It might broaden the horizons of those who take passive solar tea  with Amory Lovins, if  the Aspen Institute and Guggenheim Foundations were to cycle their annual meeting venues through the above list, in ascending order.   

Source: United Nations statistics last updated August 2007

 

Comments

[Robert Speirs]

All Western economic aid to these countries should of course be stopped immediately, for such aid will only help them to increase their level of civilization, I mean their CO2 consumption. Wait a minute, that's right, corruption and incompetence will assure that no real development occurs. Such aid will, if only slightly, impoverish the donor countries and enrich Harrod's and Rolls Royce. So I guess it doesn't matter at all.

[Matthew Joseph Harrington]

Horrors!
Don't you realize that appealing to observable facts is an attempt to impose Western European Male prjudices on innocent minds?

--I regret to inform you that the above argument carries weight in California colleges.

If these people were interested in facts, there wouldn't be a debate in the first place.