Economic Impact Of The Fossil Fuel Industry

Dr James Hansen’s argumentative essay, “A Solution to the Climate Problem,” discusses his premise that it is imperative for humankind to deal with carbon dioxide emissions, which he believes needs to be phased out by the mid-21st century. He begins with the current paradigm in government efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and claims that so far it has been a lot of talk and action in the other direction. Dr Hansen argues that while governments pay lip service to agreements such as the Kyoto Accord, they are going full steam ahead with projects that will result in increased carbon dioxide emissions, such as going forth with coal-fired power plants, coal-to-liquids, hydraulic fracturing, and tar sands oil extraction. Dr Hansen believes

The 2009 Copenhagen Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC epitomizes the stalling of international negotiations on climate change mitigation and adaptation. In the grim days of climate change governance, the literature tends to neglect ethical arguments on the responsibility of polluting states. Rather, it turns to a desperate thing for ‘whatever works’. It addresses the development of a discipline round an emerging regime. It reviews in particular the principled approaches of climate governance, the shift from ‘enforcement’ to ‘facilitation’ and to ‘liability’, the adaptation in the human rights, development and migration regimes, and innovative scholarship on concerning climate change. Climate change responses have impact on a

The argument about man’s role in climate change and the role of government, the role of industry and the role of citizens is a significant challenge that crosses all levels of government, crosses all geopolitical boundaries and crosses all sectors of business. National governments across the globe are dealing with the issue in different ways, but one overarching aspect of control and mitigation can be seen in the oversight and regulation of the electric energy industry. One significant challenge facing each nation is the cost to lower carbon emissions and the question of who will pay the additional cost for compliance. Though the cost issue is significant, a much more difficult question is whether any decision on lowering emissions can make

Scranton writes, “Many critics question whether renewable energy will ever be a feasible alternative to carbon fuels, pointing out that its cost-to-energy ratios are simply too high” (46). Renewable energy sources are expensive to set-up and maintain and their energy is not efficient or reliable enough for widespread use. CCS shares the problem of cost with renewable energy along with being underdeveloped. Scranton writes, “CCS is a new and expensive technology that stands little chance of being developed on a global scale quickly enough for it to make a real difference” (50). Scranton helps the reader understand, in practice, CCS is unlikely to solve global warming because it is too expensive to develop on a scale that might make a difference.

In the year 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States consumed a staggering 6.89 billion barrels of oil (U.S.EIA). Which in fact, equates to 18.89 million barrels being consumed every single day. That is a vast amount of petroleum products being consumed on a daily national level. If the calculation is made, based on a barrel equaling forty two gallons, it would come out to 289,583,700,000 gallons per year, or 793,380,000 gallons per day. The amount is incredible, almost unbelievable. If the United States continues its use of oil at this rate, the supply will only last another forty years. With more and more cars being on the road and operating machinery performing tasks, the supply of petroleum will not be able to meet demand forever. As our use of fossil fuels increases, so does our need for a new source of renewable energy.

On the same note, the energy revolution spoken of above brings forth another advance in the ongoing global climate situation. The nature of the Kyoto Protocol calls for nations to increase research and eventually semi-convert their energy usage to accommodate for cleaner energy. Products such as solar power, wind power, biomass, geothermal power, and hydropower are now widely being studying to create processes that use less coal, oil, and natural gas in production. Altogether the results have

There are many potential pathways to decarbonisation, but one in particular covers all the important aspects. This pathway involves having ambitious energy efficiency, which leads to a

These sources of energy have a great upside, but right now are incredibly inefficient compared with fossil fuels because of the lack of funding and worldly push (2009). If there isn’t a bigger investment in these alternative energies, fossil fuels are going to maintain their stranglehold on all the economies of the world (Lomborg, 2009).

In the United States, a sustainable society is desired by virtually every citizen, especially the ones informed of the consequences caused by our wanton use of fossil fuels and the detrimental methods used to extract them from the earth. Nevertheless, despite almost universal acceptance of the need to turn away from nonrenewable and polluting energy sources, there are forces preventing that switch. One of those forces is the megalith that is our current energy paradigm, or the existing energy production/consumption infrastructure that we’ve built which runs largely on nonrenewable resources. Yet, as daunting as a transition to a world run on renewable energies like solar, an energy source with significant growth-potential, may seem from a technological and logistical standpoint, it is eminently feasible. The most problematic hurdle the United States faces is, in truth, political stagnation. While intense lobbying efforts from the fossil fuel industry and public utilities don’t help, the gridlock caused by the inherent framework of the U.S. political system is principally to blame for governmental malaise when it comes to investing in green technology. However, with increasing concerns over environmental degradation and impending climate change, progress has been made. The U.S. Department of Energy (USDE) has appointed 25 cities across the country to be part of its “Solar America City” initiative, including Philadelphia. Philadelphia, which aims to become the leading city in

The climate change impacts of greenhouse gases threaten the economic development and environmental quality. These threats indicate that all nations regardless their economic growth should work collaboratively to reduce the emission to a certain level. Hare et al. (2011) argued that “climate change is a collective action problem” thus requires a global coordination from all countries. This indicates that actions from several countries would never be sufficient to address the climate change problem. If a global target to limit warming to 2°C or below is about to achieve (UNFCCC 2010, p.4) a broad range of participation is required (Hare et al., 2011). However, the increasing complexity of negotiation processes is inevitable. Each country will pursue its own interests during the

To begin with, humans have been burning CO2 in many forms, such as coal, oil, and natural gas which has the result of releasing energy, but also releases CO2 back into the atmosphere. Fossil fuels is one of the main type of resources that is used everyday for products like medicines, cosmetics, plastics, synthetic fabrics, and lubricants. Also as fuel for cars and airplanes, power electricity plants, and heat our homes. Since it was discover, it has been used to make resources that would change our lives. In reality, we did not realize that by using too much of these resources, it would harm the planet in many ways. According to an article called “The Hidden Cost of Fossil Fuels,” they stated that:

Everyday in U.S., immense amount of fossil fuel is burned. Fossil fuels are fuel formed by natural processes, such as decomposition of buried dead organisms. Fossil fuel release carbon dioxide when they are burned which adds to the greenhouse effect and increases global warming. The way we can help the environment and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide is by replaying fossil fuels with solar and wind sources for electric power generations in the U.S.

However, there is the potential for higher emissions reductions using increasingly energy efficient types of sustainable technologies such as cogeneration, district energy, construction certification standards, and others.

It’s no secret that money runs the world, everything has a significant value behind it. Each energy alternative is expensive and on a global level it can disrupt things that we need more. There is also a great deal of money left to be made in the oil industry. Once the policy is put in place the economy would maybe take a small hit because each energy source is expensive. The economy would eventually grow in future years while the earth is becoming more of a healthy place to live. These energy sources will be able to create jobs from building the wind farms and turbines to building nuclear power plants.

The structure of the Prisoner’s Dilemma (Kreps, Milgrom, Roberts & Wilson, 1982) and the solutions offered to it can be said to be more or less the way in which states have organised the creation and protection of collective goods. We pay tax to build a dam to protect us from the water, and get sanctioned if we do not. It also seems to be the manner in which (international) environmental governance was – and often still is – largely organised. Within the rationality of game theory, regarding the risk of climate change, one should simply extent the game to a plurality of persons that