“The United States needs to do more about reducing carbon dioxide emissions,” says Kyra. “I read we’re responsible for more carbon dioxide emissions than any other country on Earth except China. I think we should be a leader in the fight against climate change.”

“Well,” says Anthony, “if China is polluting more, maybe they should change first. I heard that their greenhouse gas emissions are projected to rise much faster than ours.”

“Everybody needs to do better,” says Aliyah. “There’s no use in everyone sitting around attributing responsibility to someone else. The whole world needs to help.”

“Figuring out who produces how much carbon dioxide can be tricky,” says Mr. Seemy. “Maybe some of you could find some statistics that would help us compare the roles of the United States and China.”

Kyra, Anthony, and Aliyah found some data on the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s website. They focused on “carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption of energy” for China and the United States from 2006 to 2016. They looked at the total population and emissions for each country, and calculated the “per capita” (per person) emissions for each country. They made the following graphs.