People wanted climate science Monday. Walker released more political smog.

While the world focused Monday on climate change science, it won't surprise anyone that Scott Walker's Twitter contribution promoted the right's ideologically-based contempt for data, reality and history.

Scott Walker Retweeted Sep 23 Communist China emits more carbon dioxide than the US and EU combinedso maybe capitalism isn’t the problem...

Walker forfeited any credibility on climate change by presiding over an eight-year, attack on climate change science, budgets and expertise, so of course he would gloss over known facts (below) because he's interested only in the game:

Why the US bears the most responsibility for climate change, in one chart

The wonderful folks at Carbon Brief have put together a great visual of how different countries have contributed to climate change since 1750. The animation shows the cumulative carbon dioxide emissions of the top emitters and how they’ve changed over time. Take a look:

Carbon Brief@CarbonBrief

Animation: The countries with the largest cumulative CO2 emissions since 1750
Ranking as of the start of 2019:
1) US – 397GtCO2
2) CN – 214Gt
3) fmr USSR – 180
4) DE – 90
5) UK – 77
6) JP – 58
7) IN – 51
8) FR – 37
9) CA – 32
10) PL – 27

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Cumulative emissions are the critical factor behind the warming we’re experiencing

It’s not simply the rate of our output of heat-trapping gases that changes the global climate; the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted is a critical factor as well. 

While atmospheric carbon is gradually absorbed by the ocean and plants, a large fraction, about 20 percent, lingers for millennia. That means a big chunk of the greenhouse gases emitted at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution is still heating up our planet today. If we were to magically cease emitting all greenhouse gases at once, the planet would likely continue warming for a period of time. This leads to the next point....

What’s abundantly clear is that the United States of America is the all-time biggest, baddest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet. 

That’s true, despite recent gains in energy efficiency and cuts in emissions. These relatively small steps now cannot offset more than a century of reckless emissions that have built up in the atmosphere. Much more drastic steps are now needed to slow climate change. And as the top cumulative emitter, the US bears a greater imperative for curbing its carbon dioxide output and a greater moral responsibility for the impacts of global warming.