Hacker News Reader

Comment by mesh | Hacker News Reader

Why call out the west? A quick google search shows China as the top contributor to global warming, with Russia and India in the top 5.

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/sci...

Seems to me this is a world wide issue, that calls for a world wide solution.

View on HN

That's completely unfair. China is a huge importer of CO2 emissions. Where do you think the dollars behind all those plastic toys and electric components come from?

Statistics like these don't account for a countries carbon footprint relative to population; there's no way that Poland, with a GDP of $13k per capita, produces fewer CO2 emissions than South Africa with a GDP of $6k per capita. But it is likely that South Africa has more manufacturing and mining operations to support exports.

This is a world problem for sure. However, has the Chinese government or corporations spent billions on efforts to convince the population that climate change is a hoax? Anyone who runs a country that agrees it's a problem is doing better than a country (USA) where so many prominent people in power deny that the earth is changing because of us. That problem in particular seems unique to the west.

Uh... despite that, US carbon emissions have dropped over 500 million metric tons from their peak levels. I don't see any movement in that direction from China and India.

Actions speak louder than words, after all.

Is this mostly fuel efficiency in vehicles? I can't imagine solar is having that kind of impact yet, is it? (It would be great if it were.)

No, it mainly has to do with the use of Natural Gas instead of coal for electricity generation

But the USA also has twice the carbon emission per capita of China and India's is almost ten times lower than that of the USA. Comparing carbon emissions but ignoring the differences in population is a bit misleading at the very least. You can really only start complaining about other countries when they pollute more than yourself.

Direction is also important, not just per capita abv

The west (and the United States in particular) has had ample time and resources to do something about the problem, and failed to act meaningfully. China and India would have had to make much larger sacrifices in terms of individual quality of life to have the same impact.

This year's carbon isn't what's causing global warming. It would be interesting to sum all the anthropogenic carbon for the last 1000 years by source and see where it's coming from. Then we'd need to somehow work out what percentage of those totals were "consumed" locally vs exported. Europe and North America ("the west") would not come out well in this, though.

This is a global problem, trying to scapegoat any one country is a really bad idea.

Considering that much of their population lives in poverty, I would say they have done an impressive amount. I can't imagine we would do as much if the shoe was on the other foot. The figures I've seen say they have greater levels of investment in green technologies than any other country (including the US).

But, in any case, if we really wanted to do something about climate change, it wouldn't be difficult. The US is currently negotiating trade deals which would cover about two thirds of the global economy.

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=SUM+GDP+Australia+Brun...

All they need to do is include a minimum carbon price, or a requirement to meet the Paris targets, in those deals. You don't need that much of a push for the weight of the global economy to drive forward the alternative technologies. It's not a question of who is going to take the most punishment, it's a question of applying the right pressure so that solar, electric vehicles, etc have the scale to become cheaper than current technologies. And if enough countries undertake that together, they will be leaders in those new industries.

How much of that is just western stuff being manufactured there?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com