Carbon dioxide emission sources for Thailand are solid, liquid such as petroleum, gas fuels, fossil fuel burning, cement and bunker. Thailand didn't have any carbon dioxide emissions till year 1980. First significant emission of carbon dioxide was seen from 1981-1982 (CDIAC). Around early to mid 80's, Thailand had overall high growth rate due to industrialization, agriculture, fishery business, petroleum and oil refineries establishment that wasn't seen in 1970s (Mongabay.com).
According to CDIAC, Thailand's rank for per capita carbon dioxide emission is 87th in comparison to United States whose rank is 12th.The ranking information looks about accurate. More population doesn't always mean more carbon dioxide emission, but, if a country is more industrialized, they are more likely to emit more carbon dioxide, and this definitely holds true for Thailand. Also, there were some countries in the list who were among top 10 regardless of the population which could be because of their dominant oil and petroleum based minery industry establishment, but knowing that emission of United States was continued to be high for a long time and is still increasing, I had assumed that United States would be at a higher ranking.
Looking at the total fossil fuel emission graph shows that Unites States has had extreme high emission from very beginning of 1900 and have accelerated high ever since, China had very low emission till 1950 when they started emitting and it had accelerated in a steep fashion. Next in the list was India, and it quickly being industrialized explain the rise in their fossil fuel emission. In comparison to these countries, Italy, Kenya and Thailand didn't have a very high emission and last in the list of all six countries was Thailand whose fossil fuel emission started after 1980.
Having more population and being highly industrialized and urbanized in today's world would explain fossil fuel emission comparison for United States and China. China have grown fast and steep and India is in the same verge of growth as well.
These are the total fossil fuel emissions for Countries in the graph in 2010 (in thousand metric tons of carbon):
United States - 1,481,608
China - 2,259,856
India - 547,811
Italy - 110,801
Kenya- 3,389
Thailand - 80,524
Not just by looking at this data, but by looking at the comparison data of total fossil fuel emission of all the countries in 2010, published by (CDAIC), United States is the highest emitter of fossil fuel.
If the US had 309,000,000 people in 2010 and China had 1,338,000,000 people, on a per capita basis, United States is more at fault at for emitting fossil fuel as their fossil fuel emission is 2 1/2 times more than that of China, which means even with less population, per person is responsible for the worst, creating more carbon footprints, more deforestation, more fossil fuel burning etc. than China is.
Now, here is the data for countries' (in the graph ) Cumulative Contribution to the Climate Change (in thousand metric tons carbon ) :
United States - 91,229,888
China -31,793,558
India - 9,151,461
Italy - 5,364,817
Kenya- 80,124
Thailand - 1,383,933.
This data shows that cumulatively Unites States is responsible for most carbon dioxide emission.
Next, let us look at Cumulative carbon dioxide emission for these countries (in percentage ) in comparison to United States:
China - 0.35
India - 0.1
Italy - 0.06
Kenya- 0.0008
Thailand - 0.02
This data shows the comparison of carbon dioxide emission for China, India, Italy, Kenya and Thailand in comparison to United States, and this comparison clearly shows that carbon dioxide for these countries in not much at all in comparison to United States. It shows China is only emitting 0.35 % of what U.S. is emitting, India is barely emitting 0.1% of what U.S. is cumulatively emitting and similar comparison can be done for all other countries as well. Thailand is emitting 0.02% of what United States is emitting and the comparison runs similar for all countries.
This data reiterates the information in this blog, the keeling curve, total fossil fuel emission graph and comparison data from CDIAC. proves the same thing that United States is highest in total fossil fuel emission.Comparing this graph to the keeling curve graph published earlier in the blog shows similar results in terms of total carbon dioxide emissions globally. This graph shows increased carbon dioxide emission after mid 1900's and the Keeling curve graph for Thailand shows similar results with increasing carbon dioxide concentration after 1950's as well.
Carbon dioxide concentration is the
amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth's atmosphere in per unit of volume. The
Keeling curve shows this concentration for different timeline. There are
various factors that contribute to this concentration. Every time we burn
fossil fuels such as gas, coal or oil, carbon dioxide is emitted into the
atmosphere. This emitted carbon dioxide is used in carbon cycle, re-absorbed by
plants and trees, and the remaining is used for ocean acidification. So, the
concentration of carbon dioxide is what is left in the atmosphere unabsorbed
(Wikipedia). But, overall, when the CO2 emission is increased, overall CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is also increased. This can be explained as according to The carbon account, " when we are burning fuels where the carbon dioxide has been trapped under the
earth's surface for millions of years, and we're doing it so quickly
that plants and trees that are alive now have no chance of soaking it up ."
You provided great information for this country. It was interesting to see just how much emissions Thailand has, because I thought Thailand wasa very natural country, and did not emit a lot of CO2.
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