Why do 'people' think that the U.S.A. is at fault for the world's pollution?

Question

Here is the list of the ten most polluted places on Earth:
Sumgayit, Azerbaijan*;
Linfen, China;
Tianying, China*;
Sukinda, India*;
Vapi, India*;
La Oroya, Peru;
Dzerzhinsk, Russia;
Norilsk, Russia;
Chernobyl, Ukraine;
Kabwe, Zambia

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20745214/

Answer 1

Envy, pure and simple. The world's nations are envious of our prosperity and relative freedom. That is why they blame us for everything INCLUDING the bad weather even as they have their mouths filled with food donated by people in the USA. It is amazing how quickly people in other countries fortet that it the US is the country that gets them out of the messes of their own making.

Some of the other replies here regarding the use of CFCs and Mcmansions are out in the left field bleachers. The McMansions, which are those cheapo huge ugly houses, are appearing in Australia, Europe and even Asia, and so are not America's fault. In fact, the worst, most pompous, most hideous examples of those showoff-crates are being built here in America by resident aliens or immigrants from India, Arabic Nations, and South America. The traditional American values of thriftiness and balance are not at work at all in the case of McMansions. Most Americans are living in reasonably-sized houses.
As far as CFCs go, the US was the first to stop using them even though the connection with the hole in the ozone layer is shaky at best. Part of the problem with associating the CFCs with the hole in the ozone layer is that the very existence of that hole was questionable to begin with, and even more questionable was the idea that if it existed, it was caused by human activity. In one DAY, the volcano in the Phillippines, Mt Pinatubo, emitted more dangerous gasses than all of civilization could emit in one year. It is not likely that the US was to blame for the Ozone hole that may or may not be there in the first place.

Answer 2

We've had a long history of pollution. Also consumer demand bears a lot of the blame because the U.S., being a wealthy country has a high amount of consumer demand.
The other countries are now becoming more industrialized so they are becoming more of polluters but it could be argued that we are mostly to blame. But I don't think blame does anything good because it doesn't solve the problem.

Answer 3

There are many aspects that control parts of the media, no single organization has a lock on it. They (Republicans, Democrats, Independents, the media itself (such as certain talk show hosts, supposed news organizations, political pollsters, pundits, etc). I do agree that some of the bias is more anti-GOP, but no one said it was a fair and equitable situation.

Answer 4

We use most of the world's energy resources (per capita) while insisting on ever larger McMansions (monuments to our greed ); more and bigger SUV's; a transportation system (if it can be called a system) that gets more inefficient every day;
and a jaunty, swaggering, cocky, moronic oilman as president, with his sidekick dick having secret energy policy meetings with the big oil execs. (Alright, maybe I got it
backwards; bushie is dick's sidekick).
We, the USA, are supposed to be the world's superpower, a leader. So why aren't we leading the world in reducing pollution? If we were off the oil tit or not sucking so hard on it, we wouldn't be in Iraq or Afghanistan. We're in those places for the oil, certainly not some grand war on terrorism.
Osama still sends us video greetings; and Iraq is Training Camp 1 for an ever expanding squad of terrorists. We, the good ole USA, need to connect the dots...

Answer 5

The USA is the scape goat for EVERYONE's problems... However, if we pulled all of our troops and all of our aid and all of our support... We would be the bastards of the world, cause we are one of these most powerful nations and we don't lift a finger to assist the rest of the world... Catch 22!

Answer 6

The U.S. produces more of the world's greenhouse gasses. Per capita, we use more resources. Of the 50 billion animals killed each year for food worldwide (that's "billion" with a "B"), 20 percent of them are in the U.S., although we do export some of our meat. Animal industry causes tremendous amounts of pollution and greenhouse gasses and is resource-intensive.

It's quite possible that some of the greenhouse gasses emitted by our industries migrate to other countries. It's also possible that those cities are polluted because their sanitation systems are not as advanced as in other places.

Answer 7

Well, the US IS the world's largest consumer of gasoline. I think followed by China....

But you are right, one does not necessarily follow the other.

Regards

Answer 8

well CFC gas was the biggest contributor to the hole in the ozone layer USA was the biggest manufacturer and user of these at the time of highest use it was about 50% of the worlds total. when the use of cfc gas was stopped the hole in the ozone layer started to repair apparently. im assuming this is where the bad rep came from

Answer 9

It's the whole worlds fault in general not only America.

Answer 10

Thank you for posting that.

I'm so tired of the world blaming America for everything, but when they need help we are the first country they turn too!!

Have a star!