Global Warming is not primarily due to CO2 levels in the atmosphere.  That much is clear since we have just completed a decade of flat or slightly cooling global temperatures while CO2 output continues to rise.  Now a study has demonstrated that the US is not the world’s leader in CO2 production.  China has leapt to a huge lead in one short year, the same country Kyoto and other failed green-house gas plans have decided to ignore in their mandatory requirements:

China has now clearly overtaken the United States as the world’s leading emitter of climate-warming gases, a new study has found. The increasing emissions from China – up 8 percent in the past year – accounted for two-thirds of the growth in global greenhouse gas emissions in 2007, the study found.

The report, released Friday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, is an annual study. Last year, for the first time, the researchers found that China had edged ahead of the United States as the world’s leading emitter.

But the results were not so clear-cut as those released Friday, and many experts were skeptical of last year’s finding. The International Energy Agency continued to say only that China was projected to overtake the United States by the end of 2007.

“The difference had grown to a 14 percent difference, and that’s indeed quite large,” said Jos Olivier, a senior scientist at the Dutch agency. “It’s now so large that it’s quite a robust conclusion.”

Worse, China’s emissions are likely to continue growing substantially for years to come because they are tied to the country’s strong economic growth and its particular mix of industry and power sources, the researchers said.

While  I have no doubt the effort to slow down CO2 production is a fool’s errand, the fact is no Global Warming effort will do squat ‘globally’ unless China and India participate.  These two countries house incredibly large numbers of humanity.  China was able to go from a near tie to a 14% lead in one short year and is expected to keep racing ahead for decades to come.

Last year I noted Canada was about to embark on an economy crippling effort to reduce CO2 levels.  I pointed out there was no use in doing anything if all the costs and efforts would be wiped out by China:

The citizens of Canada should be asking their government if, in the event that their unscientific plan to stop global warming does not work, they can get all their money back that the government plans to suck from their hides:

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It is the populations in China and India which present the largest threat to Earth. They outnumber us 4-1 or more, and they are not modernized and use highly polluting technologies. So that 12 cents people want to take out of your hides at the pump in Canada is not going to do a thing against the army of polluters in India and China doing their thing. This is the complete idiocy of thought that is underpinning the global warming political movement. Useless flailing around a problem they cannot get their minds around.

I am not even sure what happened with the proposal. But if Canadians are paying 12 cents more a gallon for gas for this snake oil they are being ripped off.  Gases diffuse to equilibrium, so what ever China and India pump into the air will quickly disperse around the globe.  Global CO2 levels are, well … – Global.

Tags: CO2 Levels, Global Warming