1/Here is a thread about climate change that's going to make a lot of people mad.
Basically, America, on its own, has a LOT power to stop climate change than almost anyone admits.
2/China now emits far more CO2 than the U.S. It emits almost as much as Europe and the U.S. combined.
3/In fact, even this huge disparity dramatically understates the degree to which China is in the driver's seat of climate change.
China, being still much poorer than us, has much more room to grow its economy. Hence, the emissions gap will only grow larger.
4/This leads to an uncomfortable but unavoidable fact: The battle to halt climate change will be won or lost in China.
America's power - and thus, the power of American politicians, activists, businesses, etc. - to save the planet from climate catastrophe is very marginal.
5/This is just a fact. But it's an uncomfortable one for a people like Americans who are used to thinking that the world lives or dies at their command.
Thus, I see many Americans desperately trying to preserve the illusion of control with respect to climate change.