Some interesting numbers...

Something rankled me about a chart I saw recently looking at CO2 emissions linked with population numbers (CO2 per capita). What do these numbers have in common, nothing except furthering an agenda as it makes the USA looks particularly bad. The UN data for 2002 (all data of this type is a few years old) shows Metric Tons of CO2 generated per capita. Here are a few examples: USA - 20.1 China - 2.7 Russia - 9.9 India - 1.2 Japan - 9.4 Germany - 9.8 also: France - 6.2 There is an order to my choices of Nations, this Wikipedia entry is based on UN information and lists the top CO2 emitters by rank (except for France). The UN data shows the USA as being the "worst" polluter per capita except for oil producing nations in the Middle East and some small, low population island Nations that use diesel generators for power. Let us take another look at these numbers but not base our view on the number of citizens but on the overall productivity of the Nation. The Gross Domestic Product is a good measure of what "stuff" the Nation makes, how productive it is. In this light, the USA is not too shabby: The USA made $2.1 Million for each Metric Ton of CO2 emissions. China made $633K for for each Metric Ton of CO2 emissions. Russia made $1.1 Million for each Metric Ton of CO2 emissions. India made $2.9 Million for each Metric Ton of CO2 emissions. Japan made $3.3 Million for each Metric Ton of CO2 emissions. Germany made $3.1 Million for each Metric Ton of CO2 emissions. and also: France made $4.8 Million for each Metric Ton of CO2 emissions. To look at the first set of numbers, you would think that China is ten times more efficient than us but if you look at national productivity, you can see that we are actually more than three times more efficient than they are. The reason for including France is that this data shows what an impact Nuclear Power can have on CO2 emissions. The USA burns fossil fuels for electricity. France gets 70% of its electricity from Nuke Plants and it really shows on its environmental numbers.