As you can see, in 1850, the U.S.’ mounting emissions made it the fourth largest emitter of CO2. In 1859, we outpaced Germany. A decade later, we surpassed France. And between 1877 and 1912 we managed to outflank the U.K. by emitting 18 billion tons of CO2. At present day, we are still ahead of China when you look at the big emissions picture. While China is currently the world’s largest annual emitter of pollution, it still ranks second cumulatively. And the U.S. still takes the cake on per capita emissions, too. When it comes to setting a bad example for the rest of the world, America is No. 1. Go, team.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline This GIF captures just how gigantic the U.S. carbon footprint is on Apr 23, 2019.