Quote:
Originally Posted by Lurch
Howso? Both are developed, both have seen economic growth, both are comparable economically and politically to Canada structurally, etc. What is the fundamental difference that allowed these countries to accomplish reductions without economic chaos which would not be possible here?
The part where the comparison breaks down is where we signed the same agreement they did, they took action and will likely meet their commitments while we crapped the bed (and atmosphere by extension). At least the US had the courtesy to actually drop out of the agreement before it proceeded to do little to nothing, whereas we have gone down the same path as this message board - i.e. no actual progress. It is acceptable and normal for this type of medium, but at a national level it is pitiful (across 3 different governments now - Chretien, Martin and Harper).
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The populations of Europe and Japan have not grown by 25% in the last 20 years either. Not only do you have the added CO2 emissions from the populations but the infrastructure designed to support them. In addition, they do not have resource based economies to the same capacity that we do. The countries in Europe who have seen significant drops also exported a lot of their manufacturing to Spain and Eastern Europe. Basically in order for Europe and Japan to acheive their goals they had to do nothing but but apply more efficient new technology. A process that would have occured anyway.
Like others have mentioned they have localized populations making things like mass transit more plausible.