Aussies Overtake Americans As World's Biggest Per Capita CO2 Polluters - AFP

[hatrack]

Australians have overtaken Americans as the world's biggest individual producers of carbon dioxide, which is blamed for global warming, a risk consultancy says. British firm Maplecroft placed Australia's per capita output at 20.58 tons a year, some four percent higher than the United States and top of a list of 185 countries.

Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia rounded out the top five. China remains the world's biggest overall greenhouse gas polluter, followed by the United States.

Maplecroft added that China and India's per person carbon production came in at just 4.5 and 1.16 tons respectively, in sharp contrast to their big overall figures.

"Australia has about five times the per capita emissions of China for instance but China produces over 20 times the carbon emissions of Australia because China has such a huge population," University of Adelaide professor Barry Brook told public broadcaster ABC. "So you can play around with these numbers all you want but ultimately what matters is the total global carbon budget," he said.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/090911094705.1k30vvcy.html

[XemaSab]

1. We're number 2! We're number 2!

:woohoo:

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Thank God…

for Mississippi Australia.

http://users.aristotle.net/~russjohn/literary/tgfm.html

THANK GOD FOR MISSISSIPPI

From time to time the federal government or some nationally recognized academic study group will issue rankings on one or another important cultural aspect of American life--education, per capita income, culture, doctors per capita, literacy and so on and so on. When those studies are issued Arkansans run and hide because we know where we'll be ranked--49th. Thence the oft-intoned lament, "Thank God for Mississippi."

When an Arkie says, "Thank God for Mississippi," it's an expression of exasperation, an admission that we have once again despite our best efforts managed to fail utterly. We're not the bottom of the barrel. We're the dust that has settled on the bottom of the barrel. We're almost envious of Mississippi. When you're rock bottom you can at least pretend it's because you don't care about the rankings. When you're next to last it implies that you tried and blew it. Next to last is a spread eagle bellyflop off the ten meter board.

How did this happen and why does it keep happening? Why can't we get our act together and get out of this humiliating rut? I've given this matter a lot of thought and here's what I've come up with:

…

[kristopher]

3. Try 10th or so.

Presuming the only change is Australia moving ahead of US and Canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. "…Countries are ranked by their metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 2006. …"

(Saith the Wikipedia page you cited.)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jbHimfMP55acyjq7IuGJa-DHPVXw

Australia overtakes US as biggest polluter: report

(AFP)

SYDNEY — Australians have overtaken Americans as the world's biggest individual producers of carbon dioxide, which is blamed for global warming, a risk consultancy says.

British firm Maplecroft placed Australia's per capita output at 20.58 tons a year, some four percent higher than the United States and top of a list of 185 countries.

Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia rounded out the top five. China remains the world's biggest overall greenhouse gas polluter, followed by the United States.

Maplecroft added that China and India's per person carbon production came in at just 4.5 and 1.16 tons respectively, in sharp contrast to their big overall figures.

…

[kristopher]

5. You'll have to explain what that means.

I don't see a point to your post that isn't covered in the one I made.

[bhikkhu]

6. I see what you mean there

The wiki site says its a "single source" document, which makes it a little questionable. But I did a little searching and it is a pretty straightforward digest of the UN data:

http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=MDG&f=seriesRowID%3A751

Its kind of a mystery then why its normally accepted that we're the worst polluters...

[joshcryer]

7. If you see the US as a single entity, it does pollute the most. However, per capita it is going down

...and will continue going down as long as a million plus immigrate there every year.

[bhikkhu]

8. Second most now, behind China

Not that being the second worst is anything to crow about...

[joshcryer]

9. Oh, sorry, you're absolutely right, forgot China recently surpassed the US.

I still believe per capita is the proper way to view it though.