Most wanted list of climate change culprits rewritten

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19769-most-wanted-list-of-climate-change-culprits-rewritten.html

It's been in the news recently that China overtook the United States as the #1 emitter of carbon dioxide in the world. This article, however, describes a recent paper that recalculates the list of worse polluters by counting historical output (from 1751 till the present, not just the past year), and by counting other greenhouse gases besides CO2, including methane, which can be released by marsh draining, deforestation or cattle farming, the article states.

The writer does not seem particularly biased, but then the amount of analysis in the article is minimal. One might point out that historical emissions (1751 to 2006) cannot be undone, so it makes more sense to focus on which nations are emitting the most now. This viewpoint is not represented in the article, however.

I do find the scientific information to be credible. The way it is presented is entirely reasonable and a link is provided (although I have not checked it) to what seems to be a peer-reviewed publication from which the information is sourced.