Climate change is one of the biggest existential threats to humanity, but in the ongoing struggle to fight it, a debate rages on over which countries are most responsible for emitting the greenhouse gases accelerating the crisis. China currently emits more CO2 than the U.S., but both countries are the world's top producers of the heat-trapping compound. Yet doesn't just matter who currently emits the most, but also how long they've been doing it and what those countries are doing to curb emissions.
The stakes could not be higher. Humans are experiencing the hottest months in recorded human history, with scientists warning that humanity is living on "borrowed time." As climate change worsens people can expect frequent and intensified tropical storms, wildfires, droughts and heatwaves, as well as rising sea levels and resource scarcity. This has put a spotlight on the issue, as well as on questions of how to fix the problem. Salon spoke to several climatologists about America's role in both causing and solving climate change, and all of them agreed on two things: First, America is the world's largest legacy climate polluter — that is, they have put more total carbon pollution into the atmosphere than any other nation; and second, a heavy burden therefore falls on America to take responsibility.
