21/10/2011
‘Groundbreaking data tracks carbon emissions back to their source’ (Guardian Environment Blog)
The Guardian Environment Blog published today an article based on the findings of a new scientific paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper allows us to see which countries extracted the fossil fuels burned to support lifestyles in other countries.
"If you want to understand how carbon footprints are affected by international trade flows, the paper argues, you need to consider trade not only in gadgets and garments but also in fossil fuels themselves. After all, though country X might import a television that was made in country Y, it's quite possible that country Y in turn imported some of the coal, oil or gas consumed by the television factory from country Z.
Of course, there's nothing revelatory in the idea that fossil fuels are traded between nations. We all know that, say, Saudi Arabia produces much of the world's oil. But what the academics behind the new data have done is a remarkable feat of number crunching: they've tracked the carbon flows of virtually the whole world, from the countries extracting the oil, gas and coal via the countries in which it's burned to the countries that ultimately consume the goods and services all that energy is used to create."
The article includes an interactive chart that allows us to explore the world's carbon footprint from extraction of fossil fuels and emissions of CO2 through to consumption of goods and services. The chart "Extraction to Consumption" shows the ultimate supplier of the fuels used to support the lifestyles in each country:
"Extraction to Consumption" chart. The Guardian Environment Blog
The interactive chart is based on the interactive data tool "The Supply Chain of CO2 Emissions" built by researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science.
Read the full article on the Guardian Environment Blog.
Teaser image credits: Jonathan W Smith.
