Who Is Responsible For
Global Warming?

Who Is Responsible For Global Warming?


Who is responsible for global warming?The evidences of global warming are all around us. In the Antarctic, ice sheets the size of countries are falling and melting into the ocean. In the Arctic, the ice is melting so fast that Canada and Russia are jostling over the rights to the new sea routes being created.

In the other continents, including North America, unprecedentedly high temperatures are igniting and fanning record numbers of fires and giving rise to extreme weather patterns unseen since record keeping began.

Who is responsible for global warming? Is it the Chinese?

The pie chart above shows that the Chinese are responsible for 30% of the global warming from burning fossil fuels. China is by far the world's largest contributor to global warming, and contributes twice as much as the second largest contributor, the United States.

Who is responsible for global warming?But a closer look at the historical data indicates that the heavy contribution to global warming by China, a newly industrialized nation, is a relatively recent phenomenon. The chart on the right shows that China is responsible for only 8% of the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions, with the United States and the EU combining for 56% of the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions since 1850.

So who is responsible for global warming?
It's all of us. For one, we are growing exponentially. In 1804, the earth had 1 billion people. It doubled to 2 billion by 1927, and doubled again to 4 billion by 1974. Now at 7 billion, the earth's population is 700% of what it used to be just 200 years ago.

For another, each of us are burning more fossil fuels than we did 200 years ago, and everyone except the scientists on oil companies' payroll acknowledges global warming and points to carbon dioxide emission from burning gasoline and other fossil fuels, including from the 1.4 billion cars in the world, as the top driver of the present rise.

Global warming is no longer some academic topic for scientists to debate. It is real, it is here, and it's going to wreak havoc on us and our children unless we take immediate, concrete actions, starting with something as simple as putting air in under-inflated tires.

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