So tired...

Or, paraphrased: "Pay attention to me!! me. ME. Me me me. Me"

That's really cool.

I feel like I'm the only one here that didn't know he was still alive.

RIP Bob

(primarily trade in China's case, theft through imperialism in Canada's)

That's an interesting take on that comparison. I'm not sure the people of Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Tibet would necessarily agree with that portrayal of China.

In terms of stopping the destruction of the planet

Why? Let's say this was still the example... Couldn't the reach of the Vatican and its billions of followers make a meaningful impact?

Glad you asked. A country is an arbitrary set of lines on a map, isn't it? A person is a discrete object, and for statistical purposes, roughly equivalent. That's why a ratio-scale of per capita is statistically more meaningful.

If Vatican City had the highest per capita energy production, it would still be insignificant in practice.

Why is that insignificant? By what measure?

I would argue that would be an interesting data point.(e.g What would cause that? Why are the people there doing that? How would people in the Vatican who worry about climate change know there's an issue otherwise? Etc?)

A previous poster said (correctly) that Canadians, per capita produce more GHGs. That's important information.

No you're 100% right it's not inherently about population, but that's a convenient and common measure.

Again, you're talking about total output here. Where's the scale? "Country" is not a uniform data point. So at best this is categorization.

An example:

There are 3 employees in one group, and they produce 9 widgets in a day. In another group, there are 10 people, and they produce 20 widgets. Fantastic. Group 2 makes more widgets right?!

IN TERMS OF SCALE, group 1's employees make 3 widgets per person. Group 2's makes 2 or person.

That's why talking about total output power is kind of meaningless.

You're partly right. It's used to compare things of different sizes, by converting them into a comparable measurement (i.e. scaling them)

Ah, ok. But big heads-up, that's not what "in terms of scale" means. You 're talking about total output.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you mean by "in terms of scale". Typically, that's what we use "per capita" for, no?

No, that's the point. In terms of scale, they are literally behind on this one factor.

** Edit to add: you have very valid points on the Canadians over-consuming

True, but I wanted to highlight that China isn't "far ahead" of the pack, like the post suggested.

Yes, and no.

As a Canadian, I'll shamelessly plug the Canadian numbers for a minute.

• Canada has a population of 38.25 million. (Or ~1/35th the population of China)
• The US has 332 million (or a little more than 1/6th the population of China)

If we do per capita, Canada leads those 3 in renewable energy generated, at:

• Canada: 2.77MW/person
• US: 1.06MW/person
• China: 0.8MW/person.

I didn't do the other countries, so there's possibly a higher country.