Bill Gates

Factual · Other global risks

“For each American, it’s about 20 tons.”

Bill Gates, TED speaker · 2010 · Innovating to Zero (TED 2010) transcript (Singju Post)

Per-capita CO2 emissions for each American are about 20 tons per year.

Resolved true The record shows it happened or was so.

The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

What would count as true or false

Judge as of 2010 with contemporary data (around 2005–2009). True if US per-capita CO2 or CO2-equivalent emissions were roughly 20 tons per year (within about 18–22 metric tons, allowing for CO2 vs CO2e or short vs metric tons). Mostly true if within about 17–23 tons. Mostly false if around 15–17 or 23–26 tons. False if well outside that range.

Evidence

1. United States - CO2 emissions Indexmundi (republishing CDIAC data) · 28 December 2019

   “The value for CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita) in United States was 15.24 as of 2018. As the graph below shows, over the past 28 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 20.47 in 2000 and a minimum value of 14.81 in 2017.”

2. United States - CO2 emissions Indexmundi (republishing CDIAC data) · 28 December 2019

   “| 2005 | 19.48 | | 2006 | 18.96 | | 2007 | 19.06 | | 2008 | 18.29 | | 2009 | 16.82 |”

Reasoning

E1 is a page of CDIAC data republished by Indexmundi. It reports US CO2 emissions in metric tons per capita, peaking at 20.47 in 2000. E2 is a table from the same page showing yearly values of 19.48 (2005), 18.96 (2006), 19.06 (2007), 18.29 (2008) and 16.82 (2009). Most of the 2005–2009 values sit inside the 18–22 metric ton range in the criteria, so 'about 20 tons' holds for the data available around 2010. The 2009 figure, 16.82, is lower and falls below the 18–22 ton range [E2].

Cite this claim

Bill Gates, “Per-capita CO2 emissions for each American are about 20 tons per year.” (said 2010). Verdict: resolved true. Reliability API, claim c_133e70e0eeb0, method 0.1.0+c876030c. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_133e70e0eeb0