What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

UN Special Envoy on Climate Change.

That's already three red flags for me.

the use of fossil fuel based economies in the leading industrial nations

Does she mention China as the greatest oiffender in this respect?

[Ratliff]

I've been reading short stories recently, the Collected Stories of William Faulkner, and some stories by Maupassant.

I am an admirer of Faulkner and I recall being less engaged by his short stores than I had been by his novels, on first encounter. This time around the short stories are making a stronger impression.

Boule de suif by Maupassant is a great work, a window into civilian experience of wartime in 19th century France, and a cutting commentary on the hypocrisy of "respectable" people.

I don't know the english titles, but it must be easy to get it through a wiki article on Maupassant. Try these:

Boule de suif
La maison de Mme Tellier (the maison is of course a brothel)
La petite Roque
Miss Harriet
Le rosier de Mme Husson (Britten used it for his comic opera Albert Herring)
Toine
Le Horla (a fantastic/horror story)
Le Père Amable

Etc, etc.

Among the novels, try Une vie.

[Florestan]

Boule de suif by Maupassant is a great work, a window into civilian experience of wartime in 19th century France, and a cutting commentary on the hypocrisy of "respectable" people.

+ 1.

[Karl Henning]

UN Special Envoy on Climate Change.

That's already three red flags for me.

And before any question of content   

[aligreto]

UN Special Envoy on Climate Change.

That's already three red flags for me.

the use of fossil fuel based economies in the leading industrial nations

Does she mention China as the greatest oiffender in this respect?

Yes, along with the USA.

[Florestan]

Yes, along with the USA.

Good.

[Florestan]

And before any question of content   

I said three red flags because UN is usually ineffective at dealing with important problems, "special envoy" is usually a sinecure for some retired politician and climate change is usually a heavily politicized topic. 

[JBS]

Yes, along with the USA.

Digging in, it seems more complicated.
On a per capita basis, this source
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/each-countrys-share-co2-emissions
gives the following for table for per capita emissions
1   Saudi Arabia   16.1T
2   Australia   15.6T
3   United States   14.6T
4   Canada   14.9T
5   South Korea   11.7T
6   Russian Federation   10.6T
7   Japan   8.9T
8   Germany   8.7T

Possibly the US and Canada numbers got flipped, or they need to change places in the rable.

China is at number 12 on that table, with 6.5T, just ahead of the UK and France.

Their table for total emissions is the expected China, US, India, Russia, Japan as the top five.

Wikipedia meantime gives a chart for consumption based emissions per capita (last table on the page)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita
Which shows Luxembourg (!) as the worst offender by far, followed by Qatar, then Brunei and Singapore.  Going by that table, China is above the world average, but not by much, and better than most European countries. (Note for Florestan's benefit: Romania is below the average,) The US, Canada, and Australia are all about the same level. Russia is about the same as the rest of Europe.

[Florestan]

Their table for total emissions is the expected China, US, India, Russia, Japan as the top five.

Which is of course the only relevant table. Per capita emissions is not relevant, of course Luxembourg with a population of 600,000 will result "worse" than China with 1,3 billion but if you take the per capita figures in that table and multiply them by the respective population you'll see that Luxembourg is far and away behind China, which is indeed world's largest offender in terms of total emissions, which again, is the only measure that really counts.

[FelixSkodi]

Another added to my queue, as I prep for my three chapter dissertation defense on Friday:

[Karl Henning]

Another added to my queue, as I prep for my three chapter dissertation defense on Friday:

Good luck!

[FelixSkodi]

Good luck!

Many thanks! 

[JBS]

Which is of course the only relevant table. Per capita emissions is not relevant, of course Luxembourg with a population of 600,000 will result "worse" than China with 1,3 billion but if you take the per capita figures in that table and multiply them by the respective population you'll see that Luxembourg is far and away behind China, which is indeed world's largest offender in terms of total emissions, which again, is the only measure that really counts.

It's quite relevant. The carbon footprint of the average Luxembourger is almost 7 times that of the average Chinese, almost three times that of the average American, Canadian, and Australian, about four times higher than most of its European neighbors,  and almost twelve times higher than your own in Romania. So it's quite right to ask why. 

Neither China nor Luxembourg are monoliths. And if overall totals are the only standard, then China will almost always be number one, simply by dint of the size of its population.

[JBS]

Good luck!

+1.

[FelixSkodi]

+1.

Many thanks. Added, what I hope to be my last book to my queue for my defense:

[JBS]

Many thanks. Added, what I hope to be my last book to my queue for my defense:

I'm surprised you haven't read that before.

But having Baldwin's words (and his way of putting them on paper) in your head as you head out the door for your defense is an excellent thing.

[FelixSkodi]

I'm surprised you haven't read that before.

But having Baldwin's words (and his way of putting them on paper) in your head as you head out the door for your defense is an excellent thing.

I've tried to read Baldwin before, but I just couldn't get into it, just wasn't time - well, now it is time. 

[SimonNZ]

Another added to my queue, as I prep for my three chapter dissertation defense on Friday:

Good luck. What is the title of your dissertation?

[FelixSkodi]

Good luck. What is the title of your dissertation?

Endarkening English rhetoric: Toward black ways of looking

[SimonNZ]

Nice!

Hope your foot's not to sore on the day.