The Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming - Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science, and Solutions - page 301

Indonesia (1.29)

Saudi Arabia (1.31)
South Africa (1.41)

Australia (1.22)

France (1. 21)

Italy (1.49)

Mexico (1.54)

Iran (1.62)

South Korea (1.64)

U.K. (1.76)
Canada (1.82)

Other (26.4) Germany (2.6)

Japan (4.1)

Russia (5.0)

India (5.3)

China (21.3)

U.S. (19.0)

Figure 12.31. Percentage of world carbon emissions by country or continent, 2007. Total emissions were
8,365 million metric tonnes of carbon (not carbon dioxide). Data from Boden et al. (2011).

ozone over the Antarctic and Arctic. Although emis-
sions of CFCs are decreasing and global and Antarctic
stratospheric ozone losses are expected to recover dur-
ing the next 50 years or so, stratospheric cooling due to
global tropospheric warming will delay the recovery by
one to two decades or more.

small. The United States stands out as having a high
per capita emission rate and a large total emission
rate.

12.6.1. Indirect Regulations
Global warming is a scientific issue, but its control
has economic ramifications, causing it to be a divisive
political issue. Many industries and energy companies
currently rely on combustion of fossil fuels for their
viability, so they resist regulations that might increase
their costs or cause them to go out of business. They
resist changes even though total costs to society as a
whole, which include air pollution and climate costs,
would decrease if fossil fuels were eliminated in favor
of cleaner energy sources (Chapter 13).
Furthermore, many newly industrialized nations find
that increasing the use of fossil fuels is the easiest
method of expanding their economies. However, an
expansion of an economy with fossil fuel use comes
at the price of higher air pollution, health costs, climate
costs, and other environmental costs, with no demon-
strable benefit in job creation because jobs would be
created in clean industries as well.

12.6. Regulatory Control of Global
Warming
Global warming is an international, national, and local
problem. All nations emit greenhouse gases and soot
particles. Figure 12.31 shows that the top three coun-
tries emitting carbon dioxide in 2007 were China, the
United States, and India. China's share of the world
total increased from 13.9 to 21.3 percent between 1997
and 2007.
Figure 12.32 shows carbon emissions by country
and per capita in 2007. Per capita emissions were
generally highest in oil-producing countries, partic-
ularly Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait
(not shown). Yet, the populations of these countries are
small, so the total emission from them is also relatively