Eric Holthaus and Chris Kirk created an interactive map of country-by-country carbon emissions. The basics:

The world’s top 12 emitters are now China, the United States, India, Russia, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Iran, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. But it’s not even really close. China now emits more than 20 times what the United Kingdom does, mostly using the same technology that helped England start the Industrial Revolution all those years ago.

The continuing acceleration in global CO2 emissions leads to some crazy numbers: Over the past 10 years, the world has emitted more CO2 than it did from the entire period since the start of the Industrial Revolution up to about 1970. In 2011 alone, the world emitted more than it did in the 30 years between 1850 and 1880. That’s one of the big reasons climate change is such an urgent issue and why we must find a way to stop the trend, and fast: With emissions like these, more than ever, each year matters.