@dinkydoomer: China, the US, and India are the top emitters in the world and in that order. We are not clean; not even a little bit. Also, China isn't as uncaring as you mistakenly assume. They track their factories transmissions and hold those that exceed limits accountable. Also, the following is a recent excerpt from the New York Times:
“China’s attitude toward low-carbon development, as President Xi Jinping has said when he met with Secretary of State Kerry earlier, is that tackling climate change is not something anybody asks us to do,” Chai Qimin, a Chinese negotiator, said in an emailed response from the Marrakesh talks. “It’s what we want to do.”
So not only is the US a huge part of the problem, if the progress we have made thus far is undone, other countries will back out because US participation is their incentive. And then there are countries like India that don't have the money to implement the changes needed, so they need financial help from rich countries like the US and China.
The fate of the world literally lays at the feet of the US. The Paris agreement sets a limit of 2C, but we're already going to go past that with the world's current emissions. 1/3 of all life on Earth will be extinct by 2050, and by 2100, 70% of all life will be extinct. Also, once we get into the 3C+ range, the Earth will enter an irreversible spiral into ever increasing temperatures.
Maybe this is why we haven't found any aliens yet; all advanced life destroys itself with industrialization.
Also, this very moment is not doom and gloom. The Paris agreement leaves a lot to be desired, but today we still have a chance to save the Earth — the only place in the infinite universe that we know harbors the miracle of life — but if there is regression or inaction, there will come a tomorrow where we no longer have a future.
For the amount of industry the US is involved in, our emissions are low. That being said, China emits double what we do, and 1/4th of the world's green house emissions.
"Not something anybody asks us to do." - China. Really? The world condemns them at every turn for not adhering to emission standards. Do you really believe them when they say they want to do something or that no one asks them to? They actually silence all information they can, at least within their own nation, about their pollution.
That all being said, I'm very positive about the future. We have more smart people working on the world's problems now than we ever have before. All these people worried about pollution saying that no one is worried about pollution is ironically funny.
Here's a positive note for you people are still in the post-election negative mood that always happens, Trump wants to bring industry back to the United States - and the United States has environmental standards already in place that aren't going anywhere. Humans will still grow and continue to produce more stuff (why stop that?) but now hopefully more of that will happen in the US rather than other places in the world. If that's the case, I'm confident it'll be cleaner and get cleaner.
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