Why Americans shouldn’t work on climate change

Why Americans shouldn’t work on climate change

(Reason # 94 Debunked)

Roscommon/Crawford Chapter

Not long ago, my morning coffee drinking crew and I were working on the solutions to the world’s problems and I naturally brought up the issue of climate change. My grey-haired, grey-bearded friend with the colorful suspenders was among those scarfing down the free coffee. He seemed to take issue with my topic. He challenged my observation about fixing climate change with the comment that there was little we could do since other nations were the chief contributors to the problem and our efforts would be, by comparison, inconsequential.

In his argument he used the old technique of asserting an obscure fact that none of the rest of us knew. He used reason # 94 saying that the chief polluters were China, India and other Middle East nations. “With their huge populations”, he said, “they pollute the most and there is little that we can do to have a measurable effect by comparison with them.”

The rest of us at our neighbor’s kitchen table sat silent, overwhelmed by his seeming command of the facts. I felt a little abused by his comments since he hadn’t warned that he was bringing actual data to the table and I had no facts to dispute his seeming learned response. The conversation ended quickly. Most of the free-loaders at the table seemed to accept his reasoning while I sat silently biting my tongue.

On my walk home I decided that I would look up the data at my next opportunity to be prepared for a future discussion. Of course, there hasn’t been a follow-on opportunity and if I were to bring up the topic again, I would be guilty of doing research on a topic before a discussion – something that is widely discouraged at our coffee discussions since the norm is to only cover topics that we know little or nothing about. You can see that we’re regular guys from Northern Michigan.

I did the research. So now, here I am, in possession of the CORRECT facts, and now is my chance to rebut the argument albeit in a different venue that my coffee -drinking contestant is unlikely to observe. I expect I’ll need to gloat secretly in silence and obscurity.

THE DATA:

(PER 2017 WIKIPEDIA ‘List of countries carbon dioxide emissions’)

The top ten countries in emitting carbon: by country in rank order:

1.      China                     (30% of total carbon emissions)

                                                2.    US                          (14%)

3.      India                      (7%)

                                                4.      Russia                    (5%)

5.      Japan                     (4%)

6.      Germany               (2%)

7.      S Korea                  (2%)

8.      Iran                        (2%)

9.      Saudi Arabia          (1.7%)*

10.  Canada                  (1.5%)

China emits nearly 30% of the yearly total CO₂ that pollutes the earth’s atmosphere while the top ten contributors total about 70% of the total emissions of C02 that is polluting our atmosphere based on 2017 data. The remaining **197 nations combined contribute the remaining 30% with each contributing less than 1.5% of the total.

It is important to note that on a per person basis the Chinese emit less than half the emissions of the average US citizen. The population of China is approximately 4 times the population of the United States, thus accounting for their highest ranking in the list above. History is also important in this assessment. The United States has produced the largest amount of carbon emissions (64,166 million tons) over the period 1997-2007 followed by China, Russia, Japan, India, and Germany.

Several nations have higher emissions per person than the United States. The following oil-rich nations of the Middle East all have higher emissions per person: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. Part of the reason for their higher emissions stems from emissions during processing of oil from their oil-rich lands. Other nations, like China, who use coal for a significant portion of their energy generation are also major emitters due to coal’s known effects on C02 emissions.

*In 1974, gas flaring accounted for 76% of Saudi Arabia's fossil-fuel emissions. As new technologies were incorporated into the oil fields, CO2 emissions from gas flaring fell sharply and more recently account for less than 1% of total emissions, yet per capita Saudi emissions have grown ten-fold since 1950; at 4.69 metric tons of carbon per person, well above the global average.

**The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that seeks the reduction of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming by setting emission reduction targets for industrialized nations. The Kyoto Protocol was signed on December 11, 1997 in Kyoto (Japan) by 191 countries. The United Stated signed the treaty, but later did not ratify it. The Paris Accords of 2015 was a follow-on agreement to implement emission reductions similar to those first envisioned by Kyoto representatives.

THE SUMMARY: The United States has an unparalleled opportunity to make a major improvement in combating climate change by the actions we take over the next decade.

The United States has more opportunities to influence climate change than any other nation on earth. With our economic horsepower, our record of pollution, and our capabilities in scientific research and development, our nation could lead the world in developing new technologies to mitigate the climate change problem. Other nations expect our leadership since the US was an active participant and leader in both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Accords. Hopefully, our current failure in following up on these agreements and implementing remedial changes is temporary and will change after our current political environment changes. Sadly, only Syria, Nicaragua, and the US have refused to sign on to the Paris Accords.

So, what can we do? The answer will be given in our next Ccl Roscommon/Crawford Chapter Blog. See you then.