Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Per Person
“The forecasts show that it is China, India, and the other emerging economies
that are increasing their carbon dioxide emissions at a speed that will cause
dangerous climate change. In fact, China already emits more CO than the
USA, and India already emits more than Germany.”
This outspoken statement came from an environment minister from a
European Union country who was part of a panel discussing climate change at
the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2007. He made his
attribution of blame in a neutral tone of voice, as if he were stating a self-
evident fact. Had he been watching the faces of the Chinese and Indian panel
members he would have realized that his view was not self-evident at all. The
Chinese expert looked angry but continued to stare straight ahead. The Indian
expert, in contrast, could not sit still. He waved his arm and could barely wait
for the moderator’s signal that he could speak.
He stood up. There was a short silence while he looked into the face of
each panel member. His elegant dark blue turban and expensive-looking dark
gray suit, and the way he was behaving in his moment of outrage, confirmed
2

---

his status as one of India’s highest-ranking civil servants with many years’
experience as a lead expert at the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund. He made a sweeping gesture toward the panel members from the rich
nations and then said loudly and accusingly, “It was you, the richest nations,
that put us all in this delicate situation. You have been burning increasing
amounts of coal and oil for more than a century. You and only you pushed us
to the brink of climate change.” Then he suddenly changed posture, put his
palms together in an Indian greeting, bowed, and almost whispered in a very
kind voice, “But we forgive you, because you did not know what you were
doing. We should never blame someone retrospectively for harm they were
unaware of.” Then he straightened up and delivered his final remark as a
judge giving his verdict, emphasizing each word by slowly moving his raised
index finger. “But from now on we count carbon dioxide emission 
per
person
.”
I couldn’t have agreed more. I had for some time been appalled by the
systematic blaming of climate change on China and India based on 
total
emissions per nation. It was like claiming that obesity was worse in China
than in the United States because the total bodyweight of the Chinese
population was higher than that of the US population. Arguing about
emissions per nation was pointless when there was such enormous variation
in population size. By this logic, Norway, with its population of 5 million,
could be emitting almost any amount of carbon dioxide per person.
In this case, the large numbers—total emissions per nation—needed to be
divided by the population of each country to give meaningful and comparable
measures. Whether measuring HIV, GDP, mobile phone sales, internet users,
or CO emissions, a per capita measurement—i.e., a rate per person—will
almost always be more meaningful.