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Do you all honestly think that the US or what people there think is the biggest issue effecting pollution? Last time I checked as a nation we are working hard

Do you all honestly think that the US or what people there think is the biggest issue effecting pollution? Last time I checked as a nation we are working hard to reduce emissions have some of the lowest in the world. Perhaps it would be more useful to go and bash China and India, two countries in which seeing a clear sky in a large city is a rarity.

jamesblonde 10y ago
No facts to back this up? The USA is no2 in total emitter of greenhouse gases and no2 in per-capita emissions and no1 in cumulative emissions: https://wri.org/blog/2014/11/6-graphs-explain-world%E2%80%99s-top-10-emitters https://wri.org/blog/2014/11/6-graphs-explain-world%E2%80%99...
true_religion 10y ago
The US is actually #2 in total C02 production, and 6th/7th per capita over all. It doesn't feel like its a problem because of two reasons: 1. Pollution and CO2 emissions are two separate issues. The US has strong pollution regulations regarding pollution near large populations, so even if it contributes to the green house gas problem for people living in cities air quality is good. 2. The US was previously the global leader in pollution by a wide margin, producing 300x what Brazil produced for instance in 1950. In recent decades, manufacturing in the US has become cleaner bit by bit, so there has been improvement. This is unfortunately dwarfed by the quality of Europe where pollution was always a lesser problem, and environmental guidelines became more stringent faster than in the US. Many people like to compare the US to Europe, and in that respect the US usually looks terrible but the US isn't Europe and has never been in the same place socioeconomically. It is better to compare the US to China or India, because in geopolitics we are in the same place---large manufacturing nation, large population, large geography, former colony, quasi-imperial ambitions.
quasse 10y ago
"Some of the lowest in the world" is pretty creative wording for second highest in the world. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...

jamesblonde 10y ago

No facts to back this up? The USA is no2 in total emitter of greenhouse gases and no2 in per-capita emissions and no1 in cumulative emissions: https://wri.org/blog/2014/11/6-graphs-explain-world%E2%80%99s-top-10-emitters https://wri.org/blog/2014/11/6-graphs-explain-world%E2%80%99...

true_religion 10y ago

The US is actually #2 in total C02 production, and 6th/7th per capita over all. It doesn't feel like its a problem because of two reasons: 1. Pollution and CO2 emissions are two separate issues. The US has strong pollution regulations regarding pollution near large populations, so even if it contributes to the green house gas problem for people living in cities air quality is good. 2. The US was previously the global leader in pollution by a wide margin, producing 300x what Brazil produced for instance in 1950. In recent decades, manufacturing in the US has become cleaner bit by bit, so there has been improvement. This is unfortunately dwarfed by the quality of Europe where pollution was always a lesser problem, and environmental guidelines became more stringent faster than in the US. Many people like to compare the US to Europe, and in that respect the US usually looks terrible but the US isn't Europe and has never been in the same place socioeconomically. It is better to compare the US to China or India, because in geopolitics we are in the same place---large manufacturing nation, large population, large geography, former colony, quasi-imperial ambitions.

quasse 10y ago

"Some of the lowest in the world" is pretty creative wording for second highest in the world. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...