Ummm... So, how come we're focusing on China if their average is still much lower than the US's?

(Also, there's a reason why they always use log scales for GDP per capita).

Agreement (again) with Dubi... The "closeness" of China to the United States, in terms of moving along the X-axis, is deceptive, since it's a log-scale.

On the other hand, one could argue that per-capita CO2 isn't the major thing that impacts climate: it's the total amount; and with this, China and the US are the world's leaders. However, it's a lot easier to stream-line a large per-capita emission value than a small one.

However, it's easy to say, "China needs to clean up its act, look at how much dirty coal they are burning in dirty coal-power plants." Of course, if anyone's been keeping track, China's also on a path to become one of the largest renewable energy (wind and solar) producers in the world (and - by some sources - the largest manufacturer of these pieces of infrastructure); Rosling's numbers go to 2003 and 2004.

Both of these trends (CO2 emissions and amount of renewables) are due to the fact that even a modest percent increase in per-capita production means a massive total increase.

Complete side-note: China is also on a path toward stricter pollution-emission regs than the US when it comes to cars. Don't know about coal-fired power-plants, though...

Regarding international emissions, I recommend this article by Monbiot -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/may/27/monbiot-stern-east-west-deadlock-co2

Please also read these articles about the human tolls associated with that 'climate change' euphemism -
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/may/29/climate-change-poor
- http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=690
- http://www.green-blog.org/2009/05/27/climate-change-displacement-has-begun/
- http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090529_climate_change_kills