Australians: Number One in Carbon Emissions  

The Next 100 blog has a post on Australia's latest world record - we're now the world's largest carbon emitter per capita - Australians: Number One in Carbon Emissions.

Happily, the United States has finally slipped from its traditional number one ranking in another questionable area: carbon emissions per capita. Out of 185 countries surveyed, Australia now holds that dubious distinction, according to Mapplecroft, which bills itself humbly as "the leading source of global risks intelligence." ...

Australia is simultaneously a major exporter of coal, the most carbon-intensive of the major fossil fuels, and one of the countries deemed most at risk from climate change caused by the greenhouse effect. Recent heat waves, devastating fires, floods, spreading disease and other calamities have made those risks all too real.