Carbon Emissions Per Capita

The world’s population is growing at an exponential rate. As the population increases, there are serious consequences to Earth’s resources. Human interests, unfortunately always take precedent over ecological and environmental interests, which is detrimental to the sustainability of the planet. As the population grows, the tragedy of the commons gets worse because it adds to the amount of people who can deplete Earth’s resources. Worst of all, the carbon emissions of developed nations harm countries who do not emit as much. It is sad that the countries who experience the most negative effects of carbon emissions are the ones who emit the least. The underdeveloped countries, namely some in Africa, do not have the technology or the means to pollute the Earth’s atmosphere with greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide. However, countries such as China and the U.S. contribute heavily to carbon dioxide, while less well-off nations don’t have as many resources as we do, so they cannot adapt as well to climate change. The population is growing and so countries with less money and more population cannot install renewable resources and the means to adapt to the warming Earth and the changing climate. In my QGIS map, you can see the world population in numbers. China and India, then the United States and Brazil hold the largest populations but those are some of the countries least affected by carbon emissions. In Africa, it is a different story…

GHG Emissions Per Capita