Australia dethroned as top carbon emitter

Australia accounts for only a small fraction of total carbon emissions but leads the world in per capita output, or so the ABC has repeatedly told us. Now suddenly the do-everything-bigger Americans have taken our title:

It might be the biggest per capita carbon emitter, but the United States is being accused of being behind the curve when it comes to climate change.

Tim Blair will be shattered. Even more crushing, Australia never topped the list (see page 89 of the pdf download) and isn't even close to doing so. We've been lied to. But why? To make us feel guilty; to make us change our ways; and to mobilize support for both domestic and coordinated global action. (By the way, the US doesn't top the list, Qatar does, by a long way.)

So when you read or listen to the news or hear experts spouting off about this, that or some other climate change issue please bear in mind that some of the information might not be correct. It's not necessarily that climate change lies are being told; once something is accepted as "factual" it will be repeated ad infinitum. Then again, since many see climate change as requiring immediate and drastic action we've entered into a classic "the ends justify the means" situation: exaggerating, even lying, is insignificant when the planet is at stake. But is this really a life or death situation? Perhaps that too is an exaggeration.

Update: The quoted ABC News report now reads:

It is one of the biggest polluters, but the United States is being accused of being behind the curve when it comes to climate change.