Hummingbirds in Snow

The hummingbird perched upon the wooden lip of the feeder quietly. He, for the dark ruby gorget about his throat clearly marked his sex in the growing dark, moved very occasionally from his silent observation of the falling snow to dip his beak into one of the three artificial flowers. Every feather on his body was fluffed out to save every possible bit of heat. I have to remind myself not to worry about him. There is snow clinging to parts of the feader and even spots on his back, but I saw him in deeper snow earlier this month. It has snowed three times in May this year and the hummingbirds are still here with the warm rising of the sun each day.
 

Economics and Carbon Dioxide

A Thought Problem

Worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide in 1990 were approximately 22 billion metric tons. The current population is about 6.7 billion, give or take some. So that works out to 3.28 tons per person on average if we were to achieve 1990 levels of pollution.

If combined with a goal of the whole world having the same standard of living as the United States of America, about $43,574 per person, that means that the worldwide goal is producing about $13.28 of economic activity per kilogram of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere (43574/3280). It would be an understatement to say that this will not be easy as currently the US is at about 20.6 tons per capita (more or less), or about $2.12 per kilogram.

The most efficient of all industrialized economies, in terms of least carbon dioxide released for the amount of GDP produced, is Switzerland at about $9.42 per kilogram, almost approaching the goal number. Now if the Swiss are thrown out as being an outlier and use the number five spot instead to evaluate the reasonableness of the carbon per GDP goal we have Denmark at $5.59, or a bit less than halfway there (42%). This gives me hope. Particularly since Denmark isn't in love with nuclear power, unlike France, which comes out ahead. So there realistic room to grown. Indeed I think it could be possible to both have a prosperous world economy and carbon emission levels that would not be good, but would prevent further damage.

The question is how fast and by what mechanism.