Pollution must be contained to address climate change – this is the view of US president Barack Obama, exposed at Tuesday’s United Nations meeting on the matter. The president has specifically called out to China, the country with the largest population in the world, and with the fastest increasing carbon pollution. According to president Obama, China should join the United States and lead the rest of the world in carbon reduction. The president exposed his (and his country’s) views on climate issues at the United Nations Climate Summit, that took place yesterday at New York. The meeting was initiated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a day before the meeting of the UN General Assembly which has marked climate change as one of its most important issues.
President Obama apparently considers climate change a bigger threat to our world as ISIS and Ebola. According to his words, climate change will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other issue. Due to its growing economy and the lack of clear regulation enforced in the country, China has recently surpassed the European Union at the per capita greenhouse gas production for the first time. According to a series of British studies, conducted at the University of East Anglia and the University of Exeter, China produces on average 7.2 tons of carbon dioxide for every one of its inhabitants, compared to the 6.8 tons produced in Europe. This quantity is huge compared to the production of India (about 1.9 tons per capita), but easily behind the similar production of the US, at 16.4 tons for each citizen each year.
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Scientists expect that, despite the great effort for reducing green house gas emissions, the world’s total carbon emissions will grow 2.5 per cent this year, reaching 40 billion tons. According to reports, after emitting 3,200 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, our mean temperature will rise 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), with catastrophic result. Out of that total, we only have 1,200 billion tons left. Since 1880 the median temperature of our planet has already grown 0.85 degrees. To keep the world from warming over 2 degrees, we need to cut down on carbon emissions at a rate of at least five per cent each year for several decades.