It is a fair statement to make in saying that each country, continent, and sector of the earth is not polluting the same amount of green house gases. So who then are the major contributors and what is it based on? In Figure 1 one can see the break down of pollution per person in a accordance to the continent they live on.
Figure 1. Greenhouse gas pollution by continent.
This figure shows that North America (per person) is by far the biggest contributor to the green house gas pollution problem. For a further breakdown into countries and compared with the population figure 2 shows how the countries we know have a high standard of living also have a comparably high carbon emission rate.
Figure 2. Top 20 CO2 Emitters & Per Capita Emissions 2009. [1]
As shown in figure two the total carbon emissions for China are more than any other, but when compared with the number of people they have it seems they have a pretty good grasp on there emissions. When you look at the countries with high per capita emissions such as; USA, Saudi Arabia, Australia and you begin to see a trend in the high standard of living in those areas compared to the much lower per capita emissions countries. When a country is "developed", in a sense it means that it is industrialized. With industrialization comes carbon emissions for energy using and creating sources. In figure 3 it is shown how the effect on being a developed country has on carbon emissions.
Figure 3. Developed Vs. Non-Developed. [2]
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