In terms of the 8 regions in the figure below, why is the figure of the greenhouse gas pollution per capita vs. population the way it is?

According to the McKay, as of the year 2000, the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions were approximately 34 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent per year ^[3]. Shown below is a figure that resembles the breakdown of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2000 ^[3]. It contains the greenhouse gas emissions per year per person versus the population for eight regions of the earth. The width of each rectangle is population of the region, while the height is the average per-capita emissions in the region.

As can be seen, North America has the largest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions, followed by  Oceania and Europe. In fact, North America’s per-capita greenhouse gas emissions are four times the world average while Europe’s per-capita greenhouse gas emissions are twice the world average. Also, Asia has small per-capita greenhouse gas emissions, but since it has by far and large the biggest population, this region possesses the most total greenhouse gas emissions.


The belief that energy is a measure for the quality of life is the reason the distribution of per-capita greenhouse gas emissions is the way it is. Energy contributes 75 percent of all greenhouse gases and most energy comes from fossil fuels ^[3]. Thus, the higher the quality of life in the region, the more energy the region needs to power the quality of life, and the consequences are a higher carbon dioxide concentration in that region. Especially as of 2000, a very high percentage of energy was due to the burning of fossil fuels since renewables were relatively new. So, as can be seen, North America, Oceania, and Europe contain the highest qualities of life while Asia and the Sub-Saharan Africa have the lowest. This seems like the most reasonable explanation.