Who should be blamed more for global warming: developed countries or developing countries?

Question

developed countries use more fuel and have more vehicles , developing countries have bad engines in their cars and no cataltic converter. and countries like india have a lot of old cars. who is to be blamed more.

Answer 1

DEVOLPED COUNTRIES SUCH AS USA

Answer 2

oh my God!!! global warming is fake!!!

Answer 3

Everybody

Answer 4

The commonest cause of GW is CO2 production.

On the basis of total historical release of CO2 into the atmosphere, developed countries (especially the US) have pumped far more CO2 than developing countries.

On the basis of current production levels per country, China releases more than the US but developed countries as a group exceed the production of developing.

It is, however, perhaps fairer to talk about CO2 production per person rather than per country (otherwise all small countries will always be rated lower). On a per capita basis, the developed world is once again far worse with, for example, the US producing 5-6 times per person as China and 20x as much as India

So who is to blame - developed!

As for the future, the developed world could do a lot more to help the developing world become cleaner - after all, the developing world helped the developed world develop (but not by choice, usually by colonisation and other unfair practices)!

Edit:

*sigh* I do dislike people with poor science...

Michael: Current levels of atmospheric CO2 are around 380 ppm or .038%. This was relatively flat at around 200 ppm until the start of the industrial revolution since when the concentration has increased with a very clear correlation to human activity. This means that humans are responsible for close to 50% of atmospheric CO2, not 5%. In other words, the percentage has roughly doubled (100% increase) due to humans... this is not insignificant.

Secondly, you accept that different substances are damaging at different rates but then dismiss CO2 as "minor". True, it is a minor GH Gas but that simply means that each molecule of CO2 causes less warming than a molecule of say CFC.

The accepted fact is that CO2 is the most significant new factor in causing global warming.

Of course, this is all besides the point: The developed countries have released other pollutants, including major GH gases in the same proportion relative to developing countries as CO2 (which I was using as an example) so the conclusion is the same - developed countries shoulder the blame!

Your statement re "hating" China and the US makes no sense - people here are just stating facts; you're the only one who then leapt to judge and used the word hate - no one else did.

Finally, for someone so concerned about Africans, you seem very poorly informed:

Africa is a continent, not a country as Manda pointed out;

Nigeria has oil and other West African countries have a little but most don't - Africa is actually quite poor in oil;

Africa is also poor in coal - at 55bn tons, less than 6% of global reserves so, no, Africa "don't got" coal and oil;

partly because of this, environmentalists have few activities in Africa - certainly they haven't put pressure on African countries (do you have a source for that accusation?). You're right that life without electricity is tough and living conditions are bad but the "greenies" are one of the few groups not at fault...

davem: This business of the world stopped warming is ridiculous; 1998 was a peak year - the following years (until 2007 which was just as hot) were cooler in comparison but still hotter than all other years. The "cool" years between 1998 and 2007 were still warmer than all previous years since records began. The World Meteorological Organization said this decade was the hottest in recorded history.

Similarly, 2008 is expected to be cooler than 2007 but it will still be well above average for the last 100 years...

No one expects a smooth curve - of course there will be minor ups and downs; it's the overall trend that counts, not year-on-year figures. What we should worry about is not why 1999-2006 were cooler than 1998 but why was 1998 so hot?

Answer 5

Developed countries. Developing countries jump at the chance to use new and innovative 'green' ideas all the time.

Answer 6

A couple things to point out.  Africa is a continent, not a country.  There are many small nations in Africa.  And the US population is approximately 300 million not 300,000.

I think it's much more pertinent to ask where we need to put our focus when it comes to solutions, rather than placing blame.  Historically developed countries have, of course, put much more CO2 into the atmosphere.  If things continue on the current course, developing countries are expected to have a much bigger increase in CO2 emissions than developed countries.  I believe the developed nations are going to need to invest in improving alternative energy technology and share that technology with developing nations.

Answer 7

Neither.  There is no global warming.  If you say there is, please explain why the earth stopped getting warmer ten years ago in 1998?  

Since 1998 we've continued along the same lines but the earth stopped getting warmer.  

hint:  Natural forces at work?

Answer 8

The Sun!!

Answer 9

It's not about "blame."  when the internal compustion engine was developed, it was a great step forward--and brought amazing benefits to people.  But that was over a century ago--its old technology and its way past time we moved on to something better.

The only "blame" involved is with respect to special interests who are trying to keep old technology on the market and blocking modern alternatives.

Answer 10

Well if I actually believed in human caused GW-- then everyone is to blame--

The political and economic reality is that only developed countries have the financial means to try and do something about GW-- however if the undeveloped countries were to continue on their present (CO2) generating course they will negate any efforts to lower CO2 concentrations...... so they MUST be part of the solution, and cannot be "set aside" in any treaty agreements. Remediation costs for lowering CO2 concentrations -- which is the minimum amount needed-- have been estimated at 45 TRILLION dollars!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080606/ap_o...

If you read the news report above -- 35 Nuclear plants must be built for decades-- along with 17,000 wind turbines, and retrofitting hundreds of conventional power plants--- frankly I do not believe this will be possible GLOBALLY.

Answer 11

Developed countries have been spewing stuff into the atmosphere for 200 years. Developing countries for the last 50.

Developing countries still produce much MUCH less per person than the developed countries. In 2009 china will produce more emissions than the US. There are more than 1.3 billion chinese. There are 300,000 americans, but the US still produces more emissions. Ie: the average american will still produce more than 4 times as much emissions as the chinese in 2009.

China pollutes more than most other developing countries.

Also: remember that developping countries have much more money to combat the problem than others. We are the main cause, we have the money to do something about it, yet we don't.

Answer 12

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES? ok you want some blaming then dont' blame them. Take africa for example, one of the poorest nations on the earth. They got coal, they got oil, they can easily burn it to make power, but no greenies put allot of pressure on the gov not to touch their resourses. Now Life without electricity is tough: no clean water, no lights, no heating, no air conditioning, no fridge, sleep early(no lights) wake up early(to work in what ever is left to do for $200/year) . People who live in these conditions have terrible life expectancy rates. Environmentalist are the biggest force out there to stop developing countries from developing!

Say if Africa can start electricity up and start developing, they'll have better life expectancy rates, more jobs because they are expanding infrastructure, cause of better infrastructure they can get more transport, with more transport they'll have more access to schools, health clinics, hospitals, POLICE. These peoples COULD have a bright future ahead of themselves that they could grab. Who is stoping them from bieng a developed country?

EDIT:

WHo ever made the chinas are making more co2 pollution then US is right and wrong. One thing he fails to mention is how much both countries make in comparision to natural co2 bieng produced. Co2 out of all the gasses in the atmosphere is 0.054%, now OUR contribution as a whole in humans with all our cars trains planes contribute only 5% of that 0.054%. Theres the argument of "Ohh some toxins/poisens take less then 0.00001% to kill a human bieng" Well yes but those toxins/poisens are extremely potent, Co2 is a MINOR green house gass so 0.054% X MINOR = NOT SIGNIFICANT

EDIT @ ALEX

WTF 300 000 americans? theres more Americans in their army(550 000) then on land? last i heard the American population was in the hundreds of millions mate!

EDIT @ EVERYONE

haven't you noticed that GW gives more reasons to hate the US and the asians(Chinese)?