Global CO2 emmissions

This is an illustration from ourworldindata.org which I commend as a jolly interesting site. If you click the link and then click on the picture in their site, you can zoom in and actually read it.

To save you the trouble of looking, I point out that the UK’s emissions seem to be so insignificant that we don’t even justify a named box. It’s not really true though: the Dept. for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy says the UK put out 366 million tons in 2018 – which is about the same at Thailand (somewhat strangely, it seems to me). Still only 1% of the global total though.

It’s also noticeable that all the world’s aviation and shipping combined are responsible for a fairly small 3.2% of C02 emissions. Even when everybody was still gadding about going on holiday all the time, as well as getting all their wordly needs from China. Arguably the effect of spreading various aerosols and gases in the upper atmosphere makes aviation’s contribution to global warming more than just its share of C02 output. Maybe double? Still only a couple of percent then.

All in all, I’m forced to observe that there’s really not much we can do about it all from here, is there? Even if we were to elect a gallant and spectacularly effective crusader, who inspired the whole of our home continent of Europe (remember?) to give up absolutely everything, immediately, it wouldn’t really affect the big boys in the game all that much. And so, given the scale of the issue, is it wrong to conclude that my personal life choices actually, quite literally don’t matter?

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