Essay On Greenhouse Gases

Majority of carbon dioxide is released from big corporate companies and once this policy is implemented, they’ll start to look for alternative, more green sources of energy. Secondly, initiative from citizens is important as well. When residents start supporting locally grown food, using fuel-efficient vehicles or taking the public transit, it drastically reduces our carbon footprint. Lastly, it’s important to commercialize green energy. Although there are many smart companies like Tesla or First Solar, they are not enough. Coal or coal-reliant technologies are prevalent in our communities and therefore, generate the most profit. Therefore, if green technologies become more accessible to the general public, it’ll lead to the growth of this

The issue of carbon emissions is an important one not only from an environmental perspective but also an economic one. While reducing carbon emissions is an important one for the health of human beings as well as that of the environment, the larger question is what type of policy strategy is best for both reducing such emissions which might have an impact on efforts to mitigate the effects of pollution on climate change. While ther are options to consider which does not rely on economics-- technological or output standards achieved by command and control regulations--they are often fraught with political resistance by industry because they do not allow industry to make any choices or play a role in solving the problem of

Why start something if you can’t finish it? Because, we cut down greenhouse gasses because we started using more natural gas.It would also allow the technologies that we would need time to develop, and become great, magnificent even, and popular. And since jobs and money have been tight, people are buying less. These are my three reasons to support my claim. I think that the U.S. should not make laws on climate change right away. Climate change is a very serious issue but, we won’t be able to start and stop it with the technology that we have. Also if the U.S will do something about climate change, then so might others. Yet, these gases are dangerous risks to the world's businesses, its environment and the health of all people. We have increased our demand of burning fossil fuels.

A cap-and-trade program sets a maximum level of pollution, and distributes emission permits among firms that produce emissions (Carbon Tax, 2013). The purpose of which is regulation of specific emissions by stationary and mobile sources, and setting a specific level which all emitters are re-quired to meet. Cap-and-trade possibly has less of a direct economic component to it than the other alternatives to reducing emissions described due to the ability to trade permits versus the expendi-ture of resources improving technology, with some arguing it is to the detriment of the environment. As stated in the article found in Reclaiming the Environmental Agenda, by Ashford, N. et al., 2008, “being a market-based instrument, ‘the cap-and-trade option suggests that at least this form of MBI may be more environmentally effective than the usual command-and-control alternatives, in addition to being more economically efficient.” (Ashford, N. and Caldart, C., 2008, p. 908).

The result is an unfair distribution of impacts that does not maximize social surplus. Weimer and Vining call externalities a “missing market” (p. 92). It is feasible to imagine externalities being accounted for by a private market, in cases where, for example, an externality is manifested into a change in land value. However, these cases are exceptional. Governmental must typically step in to value externalities, such as charging fines for polluting industry, in order to account for social costs and benefits.

Cap and trade is a system aimed at diminishing the rate at which carbon is emitted into the atmosphere by creating an economic system based on meeting a certain minimal threshold or paying low-emitting companies for the right to emit in their place. For example, if company A only emits half of the emissions cap, that company can sell (or trade) the remaining credits to company B, should company B choose to emit one-and-a-half times the cap. A main objection to the cap and trade system is that it is not a strong enough means by which to curb emissions of fossil fuels and is inferior to specifically stronger carbon taxes. While initially appealing, the notion of simply strengthening carbon taxes fails to properly stifle carbon emissions and to adequately incentivize “green” development in comparison to the cap and trade system, preventing carbon taxes from occupying a central role to mitigate carbon emissions.

Government enacted solutions are probably the most effective ways to reduce carbon emissions and to control pollution since unfortunately the majority of individuals mainly act to their own self-interest and are not concerned with the future of the planet. This is a prime example of the tragedy of the commons, which is the exploitation of a common resource. In this case the common resource is the atmosphere. The first method proposed is the carbon cap trade system. The term cap means the limit or the maximum of the amount of pollutant to be emitted. A trade refers to the transfer of permits that have to be bought by firms that need to increase their volume of emissions from firms that require fewer permits 1. The carbon tax method is a tax on the carbon content of fuels — effectively a tax on the carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels 2. So, which system would be best for the government to enact to reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere?

In Australia, there is an emerging consensus that the government should take further actions to help mitigate and combat climate change. The current most accepted policy by government is the introduction of a carbon tax followed by an ETS in 2015. However we are focusing on the carbon tax in this essay and not the ETS. Here is a brief explanation of the dynamics of a carbon tax. A carbon tax is a tax on energy sources, which emit carbon dioxide (Co2). Therefore, carbon taxes address the problem of negative externality. Externalities are the subsequent effects when individual production or consumption of a particular good or service imposes costs or benefits on others. Therefore negative externalities are effects, which pose harm to others without their direct interaction (Basic Economics 2011). However, usual market practices and transactions do not reflect these cost and benefits in the prices involved in the transaction, or take into account in their transaction decision. Therefore this is a form of market failure. By imposing a cost on these negative externalities, the hidden cost can be addressed. Ultimately the purpose of a carbon tax is to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and therefore reduce

In February 2011, the Australian federal government declared a scheme to implement a Carbon Tax from July 1, 2012. Implementing this scheme has generated a controversial debate between Australians. The term “Carbon tax” refers to an environmental tax forcing polluters to pay per ton of carbon which they release into the atmosphere. This essay will provide the economical, social and political implication of carbon taxes, also with its introduction who will benefit and who would suffer.

   The United States releases twenty tons of carbon monoxide per person per year. Carbon Monoxide release is a result of burning fossil fuels with an insufficient amount of oxygen that causes the formation of carbon monoxide that pollutes our environment. Everyday fuel is burnt by cars, airplanes, large factories and manufacturing plants. This is causing a very large and deadly problem for our environment. When gases used on earth are released into the atmosphere they act as a blanket and trap radiation that is then redirected to earth. This concept is called the Greenhouse Effect (Bad Greenhouse, 1).

Humans are polluting our atmosphere causing the Greenhouse Effect.  What’s the Greenhouse Effect?  “The Greenhouse Effect can be visualized as follows: imagine that Earth has been encircled by a giant glass sphere.  The heat of the sun penetrates through the glass.  Some of the heat is absorbed by the Earth, and some is radiated back towards space.  The radiated heat reaches the glass sphere and is prevented from dispersing any further”(Global Warming The Facts).  This makes the heat bounce back towards the Earth, which heats it up tremendously.

The earth’s climate is predicted to change because human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases –– primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed. Although uncertainty exists about exactly how earth’’s climate responds to these gases, global temperatures are rising. Go to the Emissions section for much more on greenhouse gases.

Much like the glass of a greenhouse, gases in our atmosphere sustain life on Earth by trapping the sun 's heat. The Earth’s atmosphere contains several different gases that act like a blanket, keeping the Earth warm. Water vapour and some trace gases like CO2, CH4 (methane), O3 (ozone), N2O (nitrous oxide), are “IR active”, i.e. they absorb heat energy, and stop the warmth from escaping into space. Without the entrapment of heat, the earth’s mean temperature would be -180 C and life, as we know it today, would not be possible. These gases are present in the atmosphere in tiny quantities compared to the amounts of oxygen and nitrogen. But even a small change in the concentration of these gases may create an effect that could change our

Imagine you are placed into the future. The year is 2100. You begin to live in this

Pollution, specifically global warming, is of growing concern to people and governments. It is a controversial issue whose validity is still being debated by scientists. The Kyoto Protocol is an international attempt to address global warming through emissions controls. Traditional neoclassical economic models do not incorporate pollution in rudimentary theories of supply, demand, or pricing, as a result, firms do not consider pollution as a cost of production, which leaves government regulation as the primary method for controlling these externalities. The goal of emissions trading is to allow one business, which can make greenhouse gas emission reductions for a relatively low cost, to sell