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This is far from true. China has invested the most of any country into both renewables and nuclear power. Their per-capita emissions are far below that of other

This is far from true. China has invested the most of any country into both renewables and nuclear power. Their per-capita emissions are far below that of other industrialized countries, and they are now leading the way in technology. That said, they still remain a large user and importer of coal, especially inland (where they are focusing on transitioning to nuclear).

chasil 3y ago
China is the world's largest emitter, and the emissions are growing. Place your effort where the problem is. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/12/economy/china-carbon-emissions-record-intl-hnk/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/12/economy/china-carbon-emission...
- tzs 3y ago
  The atmosphere does a very good job of mixing CO2, so that a ton of emitted CO2 does the same harm to everyone no matter who emitted it. It follows then that unless you can make a good case that some people have some sort of natural or divine right to emit more CO2 (and thus cause more harm) than do others the correct way to allocate whatever total worldwide CO2 budget we have is to give each person an equal share. It follows then that each country's fair share of the worlds total CO2 budget is proportional to the population of the country. China has 4.2x the population of the US, but is only emitting 2.2x as much. Both are over their far share of the world's current emissions, but the US is more over. China's emitting 85% more than their fair share. The US is emitting 207% more than their fair share.
tzs 3y ago
> Their per-capita emissions are far below that of other industrialized countries Not really. Here's per capita CO2 emissions of the 10 countries with the highest industrial outputs, plus the EU as a whole and the world as a whole. 14.44 United States 12.13 South Korea 10.8 Russia 8.73 China 8.46 Japan 8.33 Germany 7.77 EU 6.12 France 5.2 United Kingdom 5.03 Italy 4.7 World 2.29 India
josephcsible 3y ago
> Their per-capita emissions are far below that of other industrialized countries Per-capita emissions don't matter. Every ton of CO2 contributes the same to global warming regardless of the population of the country that emitted it.
- notthemessiah 3y ago
  Why then would per-country emissions matter? Is Vatican City the best model of a sustainable climate paradise?
  - josephcsible 3y ago
    > Why then would per-country emissions matter? It's because "per-" means different things in "per-capita" and "per-country". In "per-capita", we're dividing emissions by population to get a single number. In "per-country", we're listing the individual emissions of each country. If "per-country" were instead just the total global emissions divided by the number of countries of Earth, then it indeed wouldn't matter either. > Is Vatican City the best model of a sustainable climate paradise? Not necessarily, but it is the wrong place to focus if your goal is to reduce total emissions. Imagine trying to optimize a computer program that takes 4 hours to run. If one function's total runtime during the program's execution is 100 milliseconds, even if it's super inefficient and could be rewritten to run in 1 millisecond instead, doing so is not useful progress in speeding up the whole program.

chasil 3y ago

China is the world's largest emitter, and the emissions are growing. Place your effort where the problem is. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/12/economy/china-carbon-emissions-record-intl-hnk/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/12/economy/china-carbon-emission...

tzs 3y ago
The atmosphere does a very good job of mixing CO2, so that a ton of emitted CO2 does the same harm to everyone no matter who emitted it. It follows then that unless you can make a good case that some people have some sort of natural or divine right to emit more CO2 (and thus cause more harm) than do others the correct way to allocate whatever total worldwide CO2 budget we have is to give each person an equal share. It follows then that each country's fair share of the worlds total CO2 budget is proportional to the population of the country. China has 4.2x the population of the US, but is only emitting 2.2x as much. Both are over their far share of the world's current emissions, but the US is more over. China's emitting 85% more than their fair share. The US is emitting 207% more than their fair share.

tzs 3y ago

> Their per-capita emissions are far below that of other industrialized countries Not really. Here's per capita CO2 emissions of the 10 countries with the highest industrial outputs, plus the EU as a whole and the world as a whole. 14.44 United States 12.13 South Korea 10.8 Russia 8.73 China 8.46 Japan 8.33 Germany 7.77 EU 6.12 France 5.2 United Kingdom 5.03 Italy 4.7 World 2.29 India

josephcsible 3y ago

> Their per-capita emissions are far below that of other industrialized countries Per-capita emissions don't matter. Every ton of CO2 contributes the same to global warming regardless of the population of the country that emitted it.

notthemessiah 3y ago
Why then would per-country emissions matter? Is Vatican City the best model of a sustainable climate paradise?
- josephcsible 3y ago
  > Why then would per-country emissions matter? It's because "per-" means different things in "per-capita" and "per-country". In "per-capita", we're dividing emissions by population to get a single number. In "per-country", we're listing the individual emissions of each country. If "per-country" were instead just the total global emissions divided by the number of countries of Earth, then it indeed wouldn't matter either. > Is Vatican City the best model of a sustainable climate paradise? Not necessarily, but it is the wrong place to focus if your goal is to reduce total emissions. Imagine trying to optimize a computer program that takes 4 hours to run. If one function's total runtime during the program's execution is 100 milliseconds, even if it's super inefficient and could be rewritten to run in 1 millisecond instead, doing so is not useful progress in speeding up the whole program.