Untitled topic • Hacker News Board

#1

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 24, 2012, 11:46 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: undefined

#2

Post by riobard » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 12:45 AM UTC

…based on a strange measurement of “PPP GDP per CO2 ton per million people”.

GDP per CO2 emission gives you rough measurement of one economy's energy efficiency. GDP per capita gives you rough measurement of the wealth of the economy. What does GDP per CO2 emission per capita even mean?

Re: undefined

#3

Post by jackfoxy » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 12:49 AM UTC

There is already a PPP GDP per Emissions column in the source data. I don't think further dividing that number by population makes any sense. At least not to my small brain.

Re: undefined

#4

Post by appamatto » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 12:57 AM UTC

It doesn't make any sense to divide the efficiency by population. I have no idea what meaning to assign to the resulting numbers.

For example, imagine a country of efficiency of 1 and a population of 1m, and therefore having an "efficiency per million people" of 1.

Now, that country splits into two countries, each of population 500k. Oh happy days, each half of the former country now has an "efficiency per million people" of 2.

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#5

Post by eporter » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 12:59 AM UTC

The submitter is making a silly comparison. Pretend we have country A with a $10 GDP, 10 tons of CO2, and 10 people. Country B also has a $10 GDP, 10 tons of CO2, but only 1 person. Subby's numbers make Country B 10 times as efficient when really they're both the same per ton of CO2.

Re: undefined

#6

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 12:59 AM UTC

jackfoxy wrote: post #3

There is already a PPP GDP per Emissions column in the source data. I don't think further dividing that number by population makes any sense. At least not to my small brain.

[deleted]

Re: undefined

#7

Post by sbierwagen » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 1:02 AM UTC

appamatto wrote: post #4

It doesn't make any sense to divide the efficiency by population. I have no idea what meaning to assign to the resulting numbers. For example, imagine a country of efficiency of 1 and a population of 1m, and therefore having an "efficiency per million people" of 1. Now, that country splits into two countries, each of population 500k. Oh happy days, each half of the former country now has an "efficiency per million pe…

The emissions of each nation would also be cut in half. The efficiency value would remain the same.

Re: undefined

#8

Post by sp332 » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 1:08 AM UTC

sbierwagen wrote: post #7

appamatto wrote: post #4

It doesn't make any sense to divide the efficiency by population. I have no idea what meaning to assign to the resulting numbers. For example, imagine a country of efficiency of 1 and a population of 1m, and therefore having an "efficiency per million people" of 1. Now, that country splits into two countries, each of population 500k. Oh happy days, each half of the former country now has an "efficiency per million pe…

The emissions of each nation would also be cut in half. The efficiency value would remain the same.

The GDP goes down, and so does CO2 emissions. So GDP/ton stays the same, and the population is halved.