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The planet will be just as warm if one person emits all the carbon as ten billion. Also, reducing your population growth rate is a great way to reduce carbon e
by CalRobert 8y ago
The planet will be just as warm if one person emits all the carbon as ten billion.
Also, reducing your population growth rate is a great way to reduce carbon emissions. A world with 500 million people living in luxury is arguably better than one with 15 billion where the living envy the dead.
Though you get to some key points. The most annoying issue is perhaps that China's emissions are largely a result of building crap for rich people in the US and Europe.
- philipkglass 8y agoIt looks like exports from China are about 20% of GDP: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.EXP.GNFS.ZS https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.EXP.GNFS.ZS It's possible but does not seem particularly likely that exports are more than 2.5x as GHG-intensive as the rest of the Chinese economy; that's what would be required for Chinese exports to account for the majority of Chinese GHG emissions. "They're just giving buyers what they demand" is not a good reason to shift blame from American corporate polluters to the consumers that buy their products. I don't see why export-oriented Chinese corporations should face less criticism for the same pollution. Both the benefits (increased market share) and the detriments (increased pollution) come from the same decisions these companies make about using dirty cheap energy.