Eli Rabett wrote:
>
> Raymond Arritt wrote:
>> Alastair McDonald wrote:
>>
>> > When are you Yanks going to realise that global warming is a global
>> > problem, and that if you are going to continue being insular and
>> > chauvinistic, then the problem will not be solved? That means that
>> > not only the global climate be destroyed, but so will that of the USA.
>>
>> Per capita greenhouse-gas emissions for the US are essentially the same
>> as those for Canada and lower than those for Australia, suggesting that
>> you hold some of your ire in reserve for the wastrel denizens of those
>> countries as well as the US.
>>
>> More constructively, let's look at what those three countries have in
>> common: they're all very highly-developed economies yet have
>> significant agricultural sectors, and they all have low population
>> densities.
>
> This is one of those truths that are totally misleading. Population
> density in the US, Australia and Canada is concentrated in urban areas.
True but not especially relevant. Those urban areas are widely
dispersed, so that in a differentiated economy goods (and people, for
that matter) are transported longer distances from one part of the
country to another.
> If you actually look at where people live, the density is as high for
> the US and Europe (PS think of densly populated Sweden and Finland).
This is a truism -- "if you actually look at where people live, the
density is as high." Indeed. And if you look at where people don't
live, the density is zero.
Your examples of Sweden and Finland are instructive. In those countries
the population is concentrated in the temperate south, which is
geographically a relatively small and contiguous area. Contrast that
with the three largest cities in the US: New York, Los Angeles, and
Chicago; one on the east coast, one on the west, and one in the middle.
(The distance between New York and Los Angeles is greater than the
distance between Lisbon and Moscow.)
None of this is to say that the US (and Canada and Australia) don't need
to reduce their CO2 emissions. Obviously they do. But we need to
consider the circumstances of each country in order to make effective
plans to achieve those reductions.
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