The USA emits about 15% of global CO2 [1]. Even if it adopted highly aggressive emissions mitigation and became carbon-neutral within a few years, the rest of t

The USA emits about 15% of global CO2 [1]. Even if it adopted highly aggressive emissions mitigation and became carbon-neutral within a few years, the rest of the world's major emitters (China, India, Russia, etc.) would have to curb their own emissions similarly aggressively for it to make a meaningful global difference. How long until civilization as a whole becomes carbon-neutral? What would happen if all future emissions were magically cancelled? Even in that unrealistic scenario, climate change would continue for decades due to the damage we've already done, before stabilizing at a higher temperature than before we started raising atmospheric CO2 levels [2]. It's absolutely worth fighting for environmentally conscious platforms, but it's also a fact that no one country will realistically put a dent in the problem without widespread international cooperation. [1] https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/each-countrys-share-co2-emissions https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/each-countrys-share-co2-emi... [2] https://theconversation.com/if-we-stopped-emitting-greenhouse-gases-right-now-would-we-stop-climate-change-78882 https://theconversation.com/if-we-stopped-emitting-greenhous...