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Title: How the US Cut Climate-Changing Emissions While Its Economy More Than
Doubled

Link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/07/...

alternative_right shares a report from The Conversation: Countries around the
world have been discussing the need to rein in climate change for three
decades, yet global greenhouse gas emissions -- and global temperatures with
them -- keep rising. When it seems like we're getting nowhere, it's useful to
step back and examine the progress that has been made. Let's take a look at
the United States, historically the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter.
Over those three decades, the U.S. population soared by 28% and the economy,
as measured by gross domestic product adjusted for inflation, more than
doubled. Yet U.S. emissions from many of the activities that produce
greenhouse gases -- transportation, industry, agriculture, heating and
cooling of buildings -- have remained about the same over the past 30 years.
Transportation is a bit up; industry a bit down. And electricity, once the
nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, has seen its emissions
drop significantly. Overall, the U.S. is still among the countries with the
highest per capita emissions, so there's room for improvement, and its
emissions (PDF) haven't fallen enough to put the country on track to meet its
pledges under the 10-year-old Paris climate agreement. But U.S. emissions are
down about 15% over the past 10 years. The report mentions how the U.S.
managed to replace coal with cheaper, more efficient natural-gas plants while
rapidly scaling wind, solar, and battery storage as their costs fell. At the
same time, major gains in appliance, lighting, and building efficiency
flattened per-capita power use. This also coincided with improved vehicle
fuel economy that helped keep transportation emissions in check.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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