preview

Economic Impact Of Air Pollution

Decent Essays

In today’s society, no one is aware of the cost of air pollution, however expert’s analysis concluded that the cost of air pollution may be far worse than previously estimated. Air pollution has been extremely detrimental for the growth of the economy and human health. If this trend continues, it will further compromise the economic growth of the country. The scale of air pollution impact is hard to measure due to the proportion and diversity of the issue. There are indications that since the early 2000’s, emissions from coal-fired power plants have significantly been decreasing, and because of this, researchers such as Muller and Jaramillo found that the annual cost of air pollution for the American economy had declined by about 25 percent from 2002 to 2011, (Frazie, 2016). The total price tag now comes to $130 billion a year, or around $400 for every person in the U.S., (Frazie, 2016).
The health and economic impact of air pollution is astounding and experts in the field had predicted that the worse is yet to come in the long run if the necessary steps are not taken to mitigate the issue. The entanglement of the U.S economy and the pollution it generates makes it inextricably difficult to eliminate one part of the issue without compromising the integrity of the other. The use of energy is linked with the growth of the economy and it is nearly impossible to create energy without generating pollution. In a 2013 report on Co2 emission by Maria Gallucci and Paul Horn, the

Get Access