Ignoring their ship and air travel contributions, of the countries and regions listed, the major industrial countries (including the rest of Europe, Japan, India and China) are overwhelmingly responsible for about 87% the “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO2 emissions”; European countries are responsible for 81.8% and Anglo countries (Anglo countries (the US, the UK, Canada and Australia) are responsible for 36.6% the “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO2 emissions” [while having 6.4% of the world’s population; 2005 data].

Figure 5 (a) lists the “2006 annual per capita fossil fuel CO2 emissions” (in tons of Carbon per person per year) for the major polluters as bar graphs;  5.5 (the US),  1.3 (China), 0.4 (India), 3.1 (Russia), 2.7 (Japan), 2.7 (Germany), 5.4 (Canada), 2.2 (the UK).

[Multiplying by a 3.73 correction factor yields the same 2006 data in “tonnes CO2 per person per year”:  20.5 (the US), 4.8 (China), 1.5 (India), 11.6 (Russia), 10.1 (Japan), 10.1 (Germany), 20.1. (Canada), 8.2 (the UK), 4.9 (the World, as estimated using data from Figure 4)  - and 20.2 for Australia using US Energy Information Administration (US EIA) data.

By way of corroboration, using US Energy Information Administration  data for 2004 and UN Population Division 2005 population data we get the following estimates for 2004 of “tonnes CO2 per person per year”:  19.7 (the US), 3.6 (China), 11.9 (Russia), 9.9 (Japan), 10.4 (Germany), 18.4 (Canada), 9.7 (the UK), 4.2 (the World)  and 19.2 (Australia).]

Message: the annual contribution from China is still below the World average “annual per capita CO2 emissions” and that of India is over 3 times lower than the World average.

Figure 5 (b) lists the “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO2  emissions” in tons carbon per person” based on the 2006 population data: 305 (the US), 20 (China), 170 (Russia), 265 (Germany), 330 (the UK), 100 (Japan), 5 (India) and 210 (Canada).

[Multiplying by a 3.73 correction factor yields the same “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO2  emissions” data in  “tonnes CO2 per person”:  1,138 (the US), 75 (China), 634 (Russia), 988 (Germany), 1,231 (the UK), 373 (Japan), 20 (India), 783 (Canada) - and the figures for Australia and the World are 660 and 192, respectively as estimated below.

Using data in Figures 4 and 5 and assuming a world population of 6,450 million (2005), one can estimate the “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO2 emissions” in tonnes CO2 per person as 1,241,100 Mt/6,450 million persons =   192  tonnes CO2 per person. The figure for Australia and the World just for 1900-1999 and dividing by the 2005 population are 10,026 Gt/20.1 million = 499 and 933,686 Gt/6,450 million = 145, respectively. Proportionality, noting Australia’s constant rate of increase in fossil fuel usage over the last quarter century, indicates a “1751-2006 cumulative fossil fuel CO2   emissions” figure for Australia  of about 660  tonnes CO2 per person.]

Message: the historical per capita contribution of CO2 pollution by China and India [noting the devastation of these countries by European colonialism from the 18th century onwards: “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” , G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/Gideon-Polya ) is well below the World average and negligible compared to that of the US, Russia, Germany, the UK, Canada and Australia.

Figure 6 plots the ratio of “observed atmospheric CO2 increase” to “fossil fuel CO2 emissions” as an “annual mean” (very noisy), a “7 year mean” (a much less noisy wobbly line) and a “1958-2006 mean” (a straight line) over the period 1950-2006.

Message: on average over the last 60 years, the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere has been 57% of the fossil fuel emissions – 43% of the fossil fuel emissions has been taken up by the ocean, soil and biosphere [however the Great Southern Ocean recently ceased to be a net CO2 absorber; current agricultural practices militate against carbon storage in soil; global warming threatens ocean phytoplankton crucial to ocean life and cloud formation; and major deforestation also limits biosphere CO2  sequestration, and contributes about 18% of annual greenhouse gas pollution].

Summary

Dr Hansen pragmatically appreciates the enormous weight of the present carbon-based energy economy and argues that Governments must urgently recognize the dominant place of coal in the current and “business as usual” energy mix. He suggests phasing out of coal use that does not capture emitted CO2 coupled with appropriate pricing of fossil fuels to drive the uptake of requisite renewable and clean-energy technologies.

Dr Hansen concludes his summary for the PM of Australia with the following comment: “Perhaps the most important question is this: can we find the leadership to initiate the tipping point among nations? Can we find a country that will place a moratorium on any new coal-fired power plants unless they capture and store CO2? Unless this happens soon, there is little hope of avoiding the climate tipping points, with all that implies for the planet.”

Unfortunately Dr Hansen’s plea to Australia via its extreme right wing, Bush-ite  Prime Minister Rudd will have fallen on deaf ears. Coal is King in climate criminal Australia. The Rudd Labor Government came to power at the end of 2007 with the promise to continue Australia’s world leading coal exports and to merely reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas pollution by “60% by 2050” – a promise that simply means that, with Australia’s world-leading coal exports included, the projected “annual per capita fossil fuel CO2 pollution” will actually increase from a 2007 value of 43 tonnes per person per year to 65 tonnes per person per year. Indeed Australia helped the US to sabotage the December 2007 Bali Climate Change Conference; is spending BIG on expanding coal export facilities; and at the recent “Australia 2020 Summit”, a Government-sponsored talk-fest involving 1,000 selected “brightest and best” of Australia to chart Australia’s future,  the Climate Change sub-Section  refused to even use the term “renewable energy”.

The only thing that remorseless, climate criminal countries like Australia will understand are Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs and Reparations Demands. Indeed I have made a formal complaint to the International Criminal Court over Australia’s evidently resolute commitment to a Climate Genocide involving the likely death of over 6 billion people this century due to unaddressed global warming,  according to Professor James Lovelock FRS (see: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/ ). Sanctions were successful against Apartheid South Africa for denying “one-man-one-vote” to South Africa’s African and Asian citizens – they are surely warranted for a small, politically correct racist (PC racist) country that is selfishly hell bent on devastating the whole planet. 

Poor fellow my Planet.  

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