If Texas were a country, it would be one of the Top 10 polluting nations in the world – that’s the damning message highlighted in a new Greenpeace report released May 27. Texas emitted more global warming pollution per capita from 1960 to 2005 than 178 countries, including China. Greenpeace argues that because Texas and the U.S. have contributed disproportionately to the global warming crisis, we must lead the world in solving it. The nonprofit is pushing the U.S. to set a high bar for itself and other nations when the international community gathers this December at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark (otherwise known as COP15), to finalize a plan to replace the expiring Kyoto Treaty. If the bar is too low, “other countries waiting to see what the U.S. brings to the table would set similarly low targets,” says the report. “Inadequate reductions globally would all but assure climate catastrophe.” Makes you proud to be a Texan.
This article appears in May 29 • 2009.