This analysis proposes a novel method for quantifying national responsibility for damages related to climate change by looking at national contributions to cumulative CO2 emissions in excess of the planetary boundary of 350 ppm atmospheric CO2 concentration. This approach is rooted in the principle of equal per capita access to atmospheric commons.
There is no such planetary boundary. CO2 ppm concentrations have been higher than 1000 ppm for most of Earth's history.
To this day, the vast majority of plant species are C3 carbon-fixated plants, which absolutely thrive under CO2 fertilization of between 1000 and 2000 ppm with some plant species benefitting all the way up to 4000 ppm.
Source: Effect of CO2 Concentration on Growth of Sugar-beet, Barley, Kale, and Maize
If you pick a random CO2 molecule out of the atmosphere and ask where it came from, the most likely answer is the US, followed by the EU, followed by China at slightly under half the probability of it being from the US.
You have to jump through hoops to not find that the US is the country most responsible for the current state of the atmosphere.
And that's not even taking into account populations. The atmosphere doesn't care about where humans draw lines on a map, though, so when trying to decide where a given country stands relative to its fair share of atmospheric pollution you have to look at things per capita.
Otherwise you get the ridiculous situation that a large country that was over its share could split itself into smaller countries that are each under their fair share with no actual change in how much pollution is coming from that total set of people.
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Source: Effect of CO2 Concentration on Growth of Sugar-beet, Barley, Kale, and Maize
https://academic.oup.com/aob/article-abstract/31/4/629/12112...
You have to jump through hoops to not find that the US is the country most responsible for the current state of the atmosphere.
And that's not even taking into account populations. The atmosphere doesn't care about where humans draw lines on a map, though, so when trying to decide where a given country stands relative to its fair share of atmospheric pollution you have to look at things per capita.
Otherwise you get the ridiculous situation that a large country that was over its share could split itself into smaller countries that are each under their fair share with no actual change in how much pollution is coming from that total set of people.