Global warming has consistently been one of the hottest issues in the last decade. Now a new research has brought to light the most recent list of the world's top contributors to global warming.
The latest study shows that the top seven countries in the list contribute to 60 percent of global warming between the years 1906 and 2005. The top seven global warming offenders include the US, China, Russia, Brazil, India, Germany and the United Kingdom. While the results are not very surprising, the new figures may shed light on the responsibilities these countries ought to have to the rest of the world.
Both the United Kingdom and Germany landed at the bottom of the list with each country contributing 5 percent of the total increase in global temperatures since the early 1900s. India and Brazil followed next with each country accounting for 7 percent of the changes. Russia landed in third place with 8 percent and China in second place with 9 percent. Lastly, the U.S. topped the list being responsible for a whopping 22 percent of the total global warming for the past 100 years or so. France, Indonesia and Canada rounds up the top 10 list of countries that have contributed the most to global warming historically.
Concordia University's Damon Matthews spearheaded the study. The research team was able to calculate the national contributions of each country to the total rise in global temperatures by considering the different types of emissions from countries all over the world. Moreover, the team also factored in how these emissions affect global temperatures as well as how long these emissions stayed in the atmosphere. To improve the accuracy of the study, the team also used historical data to factor in the effects of a multitude of variables such as deforestation, fossil fuel burning and the occurrence of other greenhouse gasses such as nitrous oxide and methane.
In light of the recent findings, many of the world's developed countries, most of which were included in the list, need to be more aggressive in their attempts to bring down the effects of their activities on the world's temperature. While fossil fuels were the only option available 100 years ago, new advances in technology are now opening up cleaner and better options for power generation as well as transportation.
