Capitalism Still Destroying Global Warming
Instapundit Rules.
GEORGE W. BUSH, CLIMATE-CHANGE HERO:
The Kyoto treaty was agreed upon in late 1997 and countries started signing and ratifying it in 1998. A list of countries and their carbon dioxide emissions due to consumption of fossil fuels is available from the U.S. government. If we look at that data and compare 2004 (latest year for which data is available) to 1997 (last year before the Kyoto treaty was signed), we find the following.
* Emissions worldwide increased 18.0%.
* Emissions from countries that signed the treaty increased 21.1%.* Emissions from non-signers increased 10.0%.
* Emissions from the U.S. increased 6.6%.In fact, emissions from the U.S. grew slower than those of over 75% of the countries that signed Kyoto.
They told me that if George W. Bush were elected, the United States would lag behind the rest of the world on greenhouse gases And they were right!
December 19th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Another case of misleading statistics. The US of A produces 22% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1997 our annual emissions have grown 100 million metric tons. The US expells roughly 1.6 billion metric tons per year. For comparison, the UK makes about 158 million metric tons, Canada 154 million, Germany 235 million. Since 1997 we have expelled 12.5 billion (12,500,000,000) metric tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
The only country that comes close to us is China, which also has about 5 times as many people. Their rapid economic growth has led their emissions to increase a great deal.
So I thank George W. Bush for slowing our economy, thereby slowing the growth of our greenhouse gas emissions.
The US still has the 2nd highest per capita emissions, right behind Luxembourg. This is the number that needs to change before we start patting ourselves on the back.
December 19th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
“Another case of misleading statistics. The US of A produces 22% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1997 our annual emissions have grown 100 million metric tons. The US expells roughly 1.6 billion metric tons per year. For comparison, the UK makes about 158 million metric tons, Canada 154 million, Germany 235 million. Since 1997 we have expelled 12.5 billion (12,500,000,000) metric tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.”
I fail to see how these statistics are misleading. Neither method of information presentation should be misleading to the intelligent consumer of information.
Or are you trying to offer the alternative explanation that because the US greenhouse gas emissions are already so high, the per capita emissions can’t increase rapidly because they are nearing some sort of ceiling in the US?
December 20th, 2007 at 3:12 am
I see the copy/paste feature on your computer works, even if USB doesn’t.
December 20th, 2007 at 3:15 am
Also the Mortal Kombat snowman is truly capital. It should be the logo for a Canadian college’s athletic endeavors. (The U of Yukon’s Fightin’ Voodoo Snowmen.)
December 20th, 2007 at 10:54 am
“Or are you trying to offer the alternative explanation that because the US greenhouse gas emissions are already so high, the per capita emissions can’t increase rapidly because they are nearing some sort of ceiling in the US?”
yep.
December 20th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Mitch: I fail to see how USB pertains to anything I said.
Michael: if that is the explanation, graphing out the change over time in US greenhouse gas emissions per capita should reveal that it follows a pattern of exponential decay, right?
December 20th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Mitch was commenting on the header change and not your response to the story. Hit refresh on your browser if you don’t see a change in header.
December 20th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Dan, I was actually making fun of Steve’s recent penchant for just copying wholesale other people’s posts, and acting like he’s providing his usual trenchant commentary.
December 20th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
For the record, I started my snowman the day before the snowDalek. I had to prioritize when I found out had to draw a Dalek for that night.