All through the 20th century, America was fueled by burning of coal and oil to move planes, trains, and automobiles emitting more CO2 and contributing to global warming.  This wasn’t the only thing getting higher, so was the economic growth.  A study by the International Energy Agency last year found that as global G.D.P. grew, global carbon emissions leveled off.  This was exciting to economists but it could be false.  A new study released more recently found that the trend continued.  21 countries have doubled their economic growth from carbon emissions.  In these countries, G.D.P. went up over the last 15 years, carbon pollution went down.  That may seem like a lot but 170 countries still have not reached this achievement.

Among the 170 countries are some of the worlds biggest polluters.  21 countries is not enough to save the world.  Everyone needs to help.  These countries lowered emissions by over a billion tons but overall emissions grew about 10 billion tons.  The article studies the different types of emissions and how each plays a part in overall emissions to the world.  Coal has shown to produce much more emissions than natural gas.  In general, people need to be more efficient with how they go about their day, not just everyday people but factories and manufactures as well. The only way to truly lower emissions will be to bite the bullet and accept a hit to the economy.  A big question remains, not to change with wishful thinking and changing to sustainable ways but can we manage without growth?  We’ll see how everything plays out over the next decade.  The choices we make will affect us later on.

References:

Davenport, Coral. “Can Economies Rise as Emissions Fall? The Evidence Says Yes.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 06 Apr. 2016. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.