[glenstein]

There's a part of what you're saying that I really strongly agree with, which is that I don't think anyone in their right mind can just say "Well look at China" and use that as a basis to give up on trying to curb emissions everywhere that isn't China. Some people are making that argument in this thread, and I think that way of thinking is deeply confused, and you are right to criticize it.

What I'm not sure I follow is the relationship you seem to believe exists between per-capita emissions and responsibility to curb them. Emissions need to be curbed in proportion to their percentage of overall global emissions, not in proportion to per-capita consumption. You can vary the per-capita statistics however you like, and as long as the absolute emissions are the same, the damage to the planet is the same. Those emissions could be coming from one person or a trillion. If China had ten billion people, or fifty billion or a hundred it would still be just as incumbent upon them to curb such emissions as they are producing.

Everything else about "implicit beliefs", the "leaps" you believe people to be taking, the questions of who should or shouldn't be blamed are abstract, highly subjective, and while important, should be considered without letting them derail the conversations around needed next steps to curb emissions.