Some countries are more responsible for global warming than others. This is a very obvious but very important statement, because it transforms the issue of tackling global warming from one of self-preservation to one of ethics.
Imagine for a moment if every country in the world was more or less equally to blame for the heating of our planet- if every nation released similar amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In this scenario, countries might choose to more or less ignore global warming, preferring, for whatever reason (e.g. upfront cost) not to make the effort to combat it and choosing instead to risk the consequences of inaction. It would be a pretty stupid decision, but it wouldn’t be an unethical one. Given that every nation was equally to blame, there would be no innocent populations that would suffer as a result. It would just be a case of reaping what you sow, not a question of morality.
In reality, of course, some countries shoulder a fair bit more of the blame for global warming than others. And, as the maps below show, that sentence could well be the biggest understatement of the year.
