However, in keeping with the current norms, the bad news is considerably worse than the good is good.

Firstly carbon dioxide emissions from the western world fell a record 7% in 2009.

Unfortunately the fall was caused by the recession rather than any deliberate attempt to cut emissions.

Even worse the entire reduction was offset by steep rises in China and India.

The report by a Dutch group shows that China’s emissions in 2009 were just higher than France at 6.1 tons per capita. However both are dwarfed by the USA (17.2) and Australia at 18.8 tons per capita, the highest of the countries analysed.

What do you do as good scientist when some folk doubt your science and claim many scientists are uncertain etc etc? Well you apply science to the problem of course. In a report called “Expert credibility in climate change” a group review the publication history and number of citations (well accepted as a measure of credibility in science) of those making convinced and unconvinced comments about te evidence for global warming. They find that the unconvinced group represent between 2% and 3% of the top scientists, depending on wether you include the top 50 or 200. They also show that the unconvinced group have half the “expertise” as their opponents and have a much lower publication rate.

Lastly a graphic published in technology review shows why efficiency is key to reducing emissions. I reproduce it below, with a larger version available via the link. It shows that 44.6% of the energy we use is lost in conversion from chemical to mechanical or electrical energy. This doesn’t include losses further down the line which bring the total to over 50%. So we are wasting more than half the energy we use. This should be our main focus, as it can actually save us money in many cases.