Author: Joe White

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Australians named worst emitters
This article claims that the Australians are the worst emitters on the planet, because they emit more CO2 per capita than any other country on the planet. But, surely, a better method of comparison would be seeing how efficient each nation is; that is, comparing nations emissions based upon that country’s economic output, which can be measured by proxy by comparing emissions per $ of GDP. The World Resources Institute has an online database that has just such a measure (and many more). Looking at 2002, the last year available, the least efficient country is Uzbekistan, which throws out 9335.6 metric tons of CO2 per million $ of GDP. By comparison, Australia does less than a 10th of that, 694.7 metric tons per million $, just besting the world average of 706.

Here’s a graph I did comparing the emissions of several countries and the global average for the period 1982-2002:

Metric Tons of CO2 emissions per $1MM GDP
Co2 Emissions Per Gdp $1Mm 1
(click thumbnail for larger version)

When the very inefficient (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and China) and relatively inefficient (India, South Africa, Indonesia) countries are excluded, we get this graph:

Metric Tons of CO2 emissions per $1MM GDP
Co2 Emissions Per $1Mm Gdp 2

Especially if you have a Sears card.

Possibly HOT HDTV deals: Sears Friends and Family/V.I.P. sale 11/11

LG 37″ LCD: 900-50-MIR = 850-85MIR = 765
Sony 37″ LCD: 1000-5%-50-MIR = 900-90MIR = 810
Samsung 40″ LCD: 1200-5%-150-MIR = 990-MIR = 891
Toshiba 42″ 1080p LCD: 1250-5%-150-MIR = 1037.50-103.75MIR = 933.75
LG 42″ plasma: 900-150-MIR = 750-75MIR = 675
Samsung 50″ plasma: 1400-5%-250-MIR = 1080-108MIR = 972
Samsung 46″ 1080p LCD: 2000-5%-150-MIR = 1750-175MIR = 1575
Proscan 42″ 1080p LCD: 900-150-MIR = 750-75MIR = 675
Samsung 61″ 1080p DLP projection: 2000-5%-250-MIR = 1650-165MIR = 1485
Sony 46″ LCD: 1500-5%-250-MIR = 1175-117.50MIR = 1057.5
Sony 50″ 1080p projection LCD: 1400-5%-250-MIR = 1080-108MIR = 972
Panasonic 26″ LCD: 650-50-MIR = 600-60MIR = 540
Samsung 19″ LCD: 330-50-MIR = 280-28MIR = 252

Doorbusters using the “after noon” price
46″ Sharp LCD: 1200-5%-150-MIR = 990-99MIR = 891
40″ Sony 1080p LCD: 1700-5%-150-MIR = 1465-146.5MIR = 1318.50
42″ Sylvania 1080p LCD: 1000-5%-150-MIR = 800-80MIR = 720
56″ Panasonic 1080p LCD projection: 1500-5%-250-MIR = 1175-117.50MIR = 1057.50
32″ Vizio ($598) LCD: 630-50-MIR = 580-58MIR = 522

I don’t know how exactly to categorize Stephen Fry. He does a bit of everything – comedian, actor, director, author – and he does them all wittily and well. He has now started a tech blog for The Guardian; here’s a sample that demonstrates his polymathic interests:

Well, people can be dippy about all things digital and still read books, they can go to the opera and watch a cricket match and apply for Led Zeppelin tickets without splitting themselves asunder. Very little is as mutually exclusive as we seem to find it convenient to imagine. In our culture we are becoming more and more fixated with an “it’s one thing or the other” mentality. You like Thai food? But what’s wrong with Italian? Woah, there…calm down. I like both. Yes. It can be done. I can like rugby football and the musicals of Stephen Sondheim. High Victorian Gothic and the installations of Damien Hirst. Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass and the piano works of Hindemith. English hymns and Richard Dawkins. First editions of Norman Douglas and iPods. Snooker, darts and ballet. Such a list isn’t a boast, it doesn’t make one an all-rounder to rival Michelangelo, it’s how humans are constructed. Adaptable, varied, versatile. So, believe me, a love of gizmos doesn’t make me averse to paper, leather and wood, old-fashioned Christmases, Preston Sturges films and country walks. Nor does it automatically mean I read Terry Pratchett, breathe only through my mouth and bring my head slightly too close to the bowl when I eat soup. (None of the above, I grant you, excuses a 50-year-old for saying that anything “rocks his world”; that’s just too horrid and must stop.)

As the man says, read the whole thing.