Are the developed countries responsible for global warming or are the developing countries responsible?

Answer 1

Everyone is responsible in some way or another but by far the largest contributors are the developed nations.

If we take a global average then each person on the planet is responsible for the emission of approx 7000 kg of greenhouse gas emissions per year, in the developed countries it's 14,000kg per person. Top of the list comes the US with 25,000kg per person and bottom of the list comes Chad with 30kg per person.

Here's a full list of countrties showing carbon dioxide emissions per capita - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita As a rough rule of thumb if you want to work out total greenhouse gas emissions (as opposed to just CO2) then multiply by 1.3

Here's a similar list but it shows emission totals per country - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions Again, it's just CO2 emissions, because it's a list 'per country' noi account is taken of the population, hence the most populous nations are at the top of the list and the least populous ones at the bottom.

There is a clear trend in how emission levels are changing - primarily that they're increasing faster amongst the developing nations. Since the above list was produced China has overtaken the US as the worlds number one producer of CO2 and in terms of total greenhouse gas emissions it's catching up, probably in a couple of years China will be the world's outright number one producer. However, in terms of emissions per head of the population China is still a long way from the top of the list.

Answer 2

Neither, climate change is mostly natural. Also, most Developed Nations have been managing their forests for centuries in the United States and even longer in Europe. What I find funny is how the developing Nations want a free pass when the Developed Nations have had a stagnant growth in green house gas emissions over the past 15 years. Also, if you would follow the green movement, you would know that Brazil and some of the other Nations with rain forests have been moving to protecting the rain forests. So far, it seems that it is only India and China that are doing nothing to reduce their carbon foot print. From what I understand, by the end of this decade China is going to have more cars on the road then any other Nation and India will not be far behind.

Answer 3

The developed countries. We're the ones with the technology that produces carbon emissions.

You've probably seen some of the right-wing nuts claiming otherwise. The gist of the arguement is that the developing nations should be forced to remain undeveloped to curtail global warming--but, you will note--they demand this in order to be able to continue polluting the earth themselves. And to protect the special interests who are making billions off fossil fuel and don't want to face the competition of the many technologies for energy production that are cleaner--and cheaper--that they've been keeping off the market.

Answer 4

Developed countries first contributed gases, and we still are but now that developing contries are contributing as well.
Are there any post-developed countries? Is there such a thing? I guess they would be the ones who aren't contributing anymore.
But it's like someone said, it doesn't matter who's responsible so much as how we're going to fix it. We're all on this earth together and have to work together to eradicated greenhouse gases and stop pollution. Texans breath the same air that Mexicans breath, and south Texans drink the same water that northern Mexicans drink (from the Rio Grande)... the problem is both of ours.

Answer 5

Scientist Implicates Worms in Global Warming
Jim Frederickson, the research director at the Composting Association has called for data on worms and composting to be re-examined after a German study found that worms produce greenhouse gases 290 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Worms are being used commercially to compost organic material and is in preference to putting it into the landfill. The German government wants 45% of all waste to be composted by 2015.

"Everybody... thinks they can do no harm but they contribute to global warming. People are looking into alternative waste treatments but we have to make sure that we are not jumping from the frying pan into the fire," said Frederickson.

Answer 6

Global Warming is the new theme of the environmentalist wackos... in the 70s, they were all about "Global Cooling"... and they were WRONG...

The environmentalists ultimately want all developed countries (i.e. western civilization) economy to fall. Do you ever heard of the environmentalists complain about how China, India and other developing countries are not environmental friendly? They only condemn mainly the USA.

Do you know why? Environmentalists are the old communists, they hate capitalism, that is why. The environmentalists are like the watermelon, green on the outside and red on the inside. They are the remnant of the failed ideology, COMMUNISM.

Answer 7

We're all in this together.

Developed countries need to reduce emissions dramatically and to develop the technologies to help the rest of the world cope.

Developing countries need to swallow their outrage, and not take the easy path to development of using fossil fuels. Developed countries should help of course.

We're all in this together. GLOBAL warming.

David T - Fortunately the temperature isn't going up anything like 1 degree in ten years. 2-3 more degrees will cause massive coastal flooding and damage to agriculture. We won't fry, but that would cost us many hundreds of billions of dollars to fix.

Answer 8

Irrelevant. What's important is who can do what to fix the problem.

The trouble is, China is a communist state, and any decent enforcement of thier environmental laws would be economically and politically disasterous for them, India, I believe, is also politically sensitive to any slowing in the economy due to environmental measures, and there is little public information with regard to climate change. As for America, it seems thier seven planet lifestyle is a roadblock to progress.

Bush may be right, it could be down to technological solutions, but that will have to backed by social acceptance and political will.

Answer 9

Global Warming is all hype created by Al Gore. Nothing more than shock. If the earth's temperature only goes up one degree every 10 years, it isn't a major concern.

Until Al Gore, the word global warming and greenhouse gasses weren't even in the dictionary.

Answer 10

YOU HAVE TO CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING THINGS:

Cumulated GHG (Greenhouse Gases) emissions of countries during history:
http://worldisgreen.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/co2-cumulative-by-country.jpg

Present day GHG:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions

Present greenhouse gases per capita:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

Greenhouse gases per unit of GDP: (I give you here the opposite ratio GDP/CO2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ratio_of_GDP_to_carbon_dioxide_emissions

Please note that if this ratio is corrected to the ppp (purchase power parity), the US does not perform any better than China while countries like Sweden produce 4x more wealth per CO2 emitted.

LAST INDICATOR: WILLINGNESS TO COLLABORATE ON GHG MITIGATION:

On this point again, the US gets probably the lowest mark since Australian conservatives just flip-flopped last week on Kyoto saying they might sign a future amended Kyoto.