Quote:
Originally Posted by Spuds
I think net emissions per land area might be a better (or at least interesting) way to look at the country-aligned figures. Consider that countries are defined by geographic borders, so each makes up a certain percentage of the planet in terms of area. Climate change is a planetary matter and not a population matter.
Also, the "net emissions" would have to account for how the country may reduce it's emissions, through undeveloped land area for example.
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I don’t know if land area matters that much as a meaningful metric.
Ultimately, it is emissions that we want to reduce, so total emissions matter, but it is possible that a country could meet a global standard per capita and still produce far more emissions than any other country because of shear numbers. This partially describes China. We need China to improve, but too often people in the US point to China when they should be pointing into a mirror.