From: Robert Bradbury (bradbury@genebee.msu.su)
Date: Thu Jan 20 2000 - 03:45:10 MST
On Tue, 18 Jan 2000, Alejandro Dubrovsky wrote:
> If CO2 emissions is what you are looking for then, IIRC, first world
> emmissions are way,way higher per capita than third world countries. I'll
> try to find my sources (i'm sure the stats appeared in New Scientists a
> number of times, but i can't remember when) but again, my vague recollection
> was that australia had top spot in the per capita competition and the US
> kicked in the total emmissions division.
New Scientist or the Economist sound like good sources. Generally
per capita CO2 emission will parallel per capita energy consumption.
In these areas, the U.S. certainly will lead. In terms of absolute
quantities, the third world countries are catching up very rapidly.
It seems to me that countries go through a stage where they are
wealthy enough to afford high CO2 emissions but not wealthy enough
to pay for emissions controls/reductions. I think Russia falls into that
category at this point. Pakistan is another place I've been that might fit
that equation.
Its probably true that we have the technology to reduce per capita
pollution to close to zero, the problem is that we don't yet have
the wealth to be able to afford it.
Robert
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