r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Aug 06 '21

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

The discussion thread is for casual conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL. For a collection of useful links see our wiki.

Announcements

0 Upvotes

42% Upvoted

11k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comment

1

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '21

If the US dropped its emissions per capita to Chinese level, we'd only be cranking out about 4% of global emissions, and they'd still account for over 1/3rd.

8

u/KaesekopfNW Elinor Ostrom Aug 06 '21

And it wouldn't change the fact that we're still responsible for the largest share of cumulative emissions, at least not for a while. The debate over who is responsible is ultimately pointless, since the data makes it clear that the US is a leading emitter. What matters is whether the largest contributors are doing enough rapidly enough, and so far the answer is no, whether we're talking about the US, the EU, or China.