I just heard mitt romney say that india and china emit more co2 gasses than us, is this true?

Question

i have heard in other places that we are by far the biggest emitters....this fact also doesn't take into account other aspects of our emvironmental footprint,which i have read is almost 60% of the globe's.....does anyone have clarification of all these numbers...

Answer 1

In terms of total emissions, we have been the biggest emitters for years, but China will probably catch us this year. India is still well back.

On a per-capita basis, we are way, way ahead of both China and India.

Answer 2

Yes, and they are just getting started.

Answer 3

True and literally not relevant to global warming.  CO2 is such a small component of the atmosphere that it has no effect on whether the earth warms up or not.  The largest percentage of any "greenhouse gas" in the atmosphere is water vapor.

Answer 4

China surpassed the US last year and they are accelerating at a rapid rate.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20...

Rooster is incorrect.  Water vapor is responsible for 40 - 70% of the greenhouse gas warming and CO2 is responsible for 10 - 20%.  All greenhouse gases combined keep the planet 34 C warmer than it would be without them.  A simple multiplication shows that CO2 is thus already responsible for 3 - 7 C of warming.  Doubling the level of CO2 will obviously increase that warming more (most scientists agree it will be between 2 - 5 C or 3.6 - 9 F).

Answer 5

Does it even matter? It's just harmless CO2. It is an invisible gas that has little to no affect on the temp. of Earth.

Answer 6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cou...

yes, china and India combined emit more CO2 then America but estimates have also put China's emissions higher then America's since 06.

Answer 7

Sounds true, their populations are way bigger than ours, and don't kid yourself they are just as industrialized as the rest of the world.

Answer 8

Yes, I think China has already over taken us, and India is not far behind.

Answer 9

In terms of CO2 emitted the combined total of China and India is higher than the US (150% perhaps).  Don't forget though that their population is 6 to 7 times higher though so per capita emissions much less.