[hokumguru]

Why does per capita matter when it’s the total emissions that we actually care about?

Wonderful, the United States uses more per capita than anyone else. That doesn’t mean anything in terms of total warming. Even if we cut to zero we still continue.

[myrmidon]

Because emissions are caused by people heating their homes, fueling cars/planes or building stuff for consumption.

With twice as many people (acting similarly) you have twice the emissions, it's as simple as that.

To reduce emissions, you need everyone doing their part. And it is also obviously easier and more effective to tackle high-emitters first (because incentivizing a single US family to have their second car be a bit smaller and electric is obviously less burdensome than banning 3 Indian families from heating their homes in winter...)

[surgical_fire]

Because per capita means that each individual consumes a lot more than the average in the US.

Also, a bit portion of China's excessive growth in emissions is a byproduct of manufacturing shit for US consumers.

[u_fucking_dork]

China should clearly just stop manufacturing the US’s entire way of life right now to bring those numbers down.