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take their money and arrest those responsible (feddit.org)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/1097575

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[–] -4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Fossil fuel emissions are also a human construct. We did fine before fossil fuels, and even coal. Population is a horrible measure because all it captures is if you are keeping people alive. Even North Korea can keep people alive. But people want more than just survival.

But fine, you want to talk about population? You're ignoring the second example I brought up. The EU has 1/3 the population of China and 1/4 the emissions. In other words, China is still the problem.

Edit: I just did the calculation, and North Korea is 4x more "efficient" than China if we are using carbon emissions per capita. I don't think population is a great measure, to say the least

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Fossil fuel emissions are also a human construct.

    Huh what?

    It's a human activity, not a human construct.

    What it essentially is, is sequestered carbon from millions of years ago, now being burned off and released into the atmosphere. Lion King's Circle of Life is essentially the Carbon Cycle, and lots of blades of grass don't get eaten. Carbon that returned to the earth in large quantities and under the right conditions became oil/coal, and now we are digging that back up and burning it for funsies.

    But that's besides the point. The point is that each individual emits an amount of carbon per year, much of which was formerly sequestered. Some countries, each individual is using less than others.

    The problem is that you won't be able to pull out a number that makes America/the west/Capitalism look good, because such a thing doesn't exist...so instead you just try to brush it off as "oh well our country is better because of this number".

    It's xenophobia and nationalism. Not science. Not even statistics.

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  • [–] -2 points 3 months ago

    The problem is that you won't be able to pull out a number that makes America/the west/Capitalism look good, because such a thing doesn't exist...so instead you just try to brush it off as "oh well our country is better because of this number".

    You're contradicting yourself here. You're saying I can't pull out a number so I...pull out a number?

    I'm not even clear what you're arguing here. My point is that the US and EU emissions have been declining for the past 20 years while China's continues to climb.

    Is that scientific enough for you?

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