1/3 of Chinese Emissions Attributable to Western Consumption
It seems that in virtually any long winded debate you get in to with a group of Global Warming Global Climate Disruption*** Deniers eventually after you won all the arguments and debunked all their pseudo-science and non-science eventually one of them will throw up the argument that even if Global Climate Disruption is taking place we (the U.S.) are not the worst offenders, China is (although not by much in terms of total contribution, and very certainly not so on a per capita basis).
Well today I read something that I’ve long suspected in regard to China’s contribution. The article in the blog Celsius I read today reported that:
China Olympics Diary: 1/3 of Chinese Emissions Attributable to Western Consumption
…the real culprit in rising Chinese emissions may be the rest of us.
A recent study by Carnegie Mellon University economics professor, Christopher L. Weber suggests that as much as 1.7 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, or roughly 1/3 of China’s emissions, are related to goods being exported and consumed in the West.
“We found that in 2005, fully one-third of China’s greenhouse gas emissions were due to production of exports. This proportion has risen quickly, from 12 percent in 1987 and only 21 percent in 2002,” said Weber, a research professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. – Science Daily
Record pollution and smog aside, China’s contribution to climate change is cause for great concern….
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Well I don’t know about putting their “Record pollution and smog aside” (a video series I also learned about this past week via Celsius profiles The Most Polluted City on the Planet – Linfen, China and it appalling if not scary to watch) but to those fellow Americans of mine who want to shirk, avoid, or ignore the American contribution to Global Climate Disruption really need to examine their foolish idiotic logic.