If anything it makes the theory feel more real <| sep |> At some point it makes no sense economically anymore to keep improving our numbers . I don ' t remember the exact figures , but I remember being taught that instead of spending 100 $ on reducing carbon emission in Sweden by a certain amount , that money can be spent to reduce carbon emission in Poland by 4 times as much . It ' s obvious we ' re going to be footing far more than our share of the bill for saving the planet anyways , so might as well do it in the most efficient way . It takes a madman to value the bragging rights of being able to say we ' re 8 times better than you instead of we ' re 4 times better than you higher than the economy or the future of the planet .