Guest “Let them fix the problem” by David Middleton

World’s Dirtiest Cities List Raises Issue: Why Don’t Politicians Call Out China?
By David Holt
September 02, 2021

Ponder this: A new tally of global cities’ emissions finds that the top 25 are responsible for 52% of the planet’s urban greenhouse gas emissions. Twenty-three of those are in China.

New York City is the first American city to appear, at No. 26. Out of the top 75, just four other American cities are listed – San Diego, Houston, Chicago and Los Angeles – all of them ranked 41 or higher. In other words, the U.S. – including each of our major cities – is outperforming the world when it comes to emissions.

All this data begs a question of our elected leaders who say we have to do more for our environment…

[….]

We are already leading the world in terms of environmental regulations and controls, and again, we’ve – by far – reduced our emissions more than any country year after year for more than 20 years. By 2025, we will be more than two-thirds of the way to reaching our targeted emissions reduction of 28% from 2005 levels under the Paris Climate Agreement, according to Bloomberg Philanthropies. Part of that is owing to the good work we’ve done in our cities to reduce emissions.

Real Clear Energy

Contrast this with the facts about China, which recently won plaudits from many in the “we must do more” crowd for promising to stop increasing emissions before 2030. While we’re cutting our emissions, China’s pollution by then will have surged an estimated 14%-25%. On top of that, China’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 exceeded those of the entire developed world.

Say that again: more than the entire developed world.

Those are facts, undisputed by even the most hardcore anti-business zealot masquerading as an environmentalist.

[…]

Real Clear Energy

“Dirtiest cities” isn’t the correct phrase to use because the “new tally” is of urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, not actual pollutants; however the author raises a very good question…

All this data begs a question of our elected leaders who say we have to do more for our environment…

Why are our politicians (particularly the Communists Democrats) badgering us about pollution? Particularly, the non-pollutant CO₂? Whether or not you view GHG emissions to be a problem, the United States have done more to reduce GHG emissions than has any other nation.

UPDATE: U.S. Led World in CO₂ Reductions For 10th Time This Century Last Year
DECEMBER 3, 2020 | BY SETH WHITEHEAD

[…]

BP’s recently released Statistical Review of World Energy 2020 shows that in 2019 the United States led all nations in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions reductions for the 10^th time this century. U.S. CO₂ emissions fell 152 million metric tons in 2019, three percent below 2018 levels, according to BP.

This continues a trend that has been observed more often than not since since the turn of the century. In fact, BP data show that the U.S. has reduced CO2 emissions a world-leading 755 million metric tons since 2000, outpacing the next four leading nations combined.

Experts agree that fuel-shifting to clean-burning natural gas from higher-emitting fuels in the power sector is the primary reason the U.S. has achieved these reductions over the past decade-plus. For example, the International Energy Agency (IEA) recently noted:

“The United States saw the largest decline in energy-related CO₂ emissions in 2019 on a country basis – a fall of 140 Mt, or 2.9%, to 4.8 Gt. US emissions are now down almost 1 Gt from their peak in the year 2000, the largest absolute decline by any country over that period. A 15% reduction in the use of coal for power generation underpinned the decline in overall US emissions in 2019. Coal-fired power plants faced even stronger competition from natural gas-fired generation, with benchmark gas prices an average of 45% lower than 2018 levels. As a result, gas increased its share in electricity generation to a record high of 37%.”

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data show that from 2005 to 2018, a rapid shift to natural gas in the power sector reduced U.S. CO₂ emissions 57 percent more than the emissions reductions realized through renewables, as the following Energy In Depth graphic shows.

[…]

Illinois Petroleum Resources Board

Yet, we’re supposed to blithely starve to death while freezing in the dark because the wind doesn’t always blow at just the right speed and the Sun doesn’t always shine, so that Red China can do whatever they want?

This from the “new tally” (Wei, Wu & Chen, 2021)…

via Watts Up With That?

https://ift.tt/38FFwq8

September 3, 2021