North America is by far the worst contributor of CO2 per person and should be expected to lead the way in finding solutions.
The movement of winds and air-currents mixes the emissions into the atmosphere and in time they will be equally distributed everywhere from the north-pole to the south-pole.
To give you an example, when there’s a major volcanic eruption there’s a sudden release of gases and debris into the atmosphere. The winds then carry these off and after about three weeks the gas cloud will have travelled right around the world, over the next two or three months it will mix well within it’s own hemisphere. After a few more months the gases will have seeped into the other atmosphere and will have mixed there as well.
Depending which gas it is determines how long it stays in the atmosphere. Most of the sulphates dissipate out within two or three years, the common greenhouse gases reside in the atmosphere for an average of about 84 years but some of the synthetic ones remain there for millennia.
As Miles has already pointed out, one of the problems is that the developed nations are the ones that produce by far the greatest amount of emissions but it’s often the poorer countries in Africa and Asia that are the ones to suffer the most.
No. That's why there's global in "global warming". (Although climate change is a better name because in some places it might be more rising sea levels or change in rainfall than a change in local temperature). The green house gasses get into the upper atmosphere and travel around the world. In fact most of the effects seem to happen in the upper latitudes, like northern Canada, Greenland and the Arctic ice cap. However, the gases do stay in the more in the northern hemisphere, it doesn't cross the equator so much.
Local pollution though, like smog, does stay in the area or just downwind. Acid rain was a real problem (and still is to some extent) for places like Vermont and Maine, caused by coal plants and such in Ohio and that area.
Not really the most problems but they China who is the worst at CO2 pollution is suffering a lot of air quality in their cities, including smog so bad they warn people to stay inside. Much of this is industrial and too many cars as well
To be more descriptive, if a particular place randomly choosing japan, pollutes a lot like burning fossil fuels or pollutants from factories, will japan be the one experiencing the most problems with the issue or is it a group thing with the whole world? if they experience the problem individually(only japan) what types of problem will they be be facing?
