Externalities of Global Warming

Global warming has been a world-wide issue for a certain amount of time, and so I thought discussing the externalities with this issue is worthwhile. Not like anybody doesn’t know this, but it is said that unless there is an ultimate solution to global warming,  the carbon-dioxide levels in the air will rise, causing the ozone layer swathing the earth, to diseappear in the future. The ozone layer is what protects the earth from direct sunlight, including deathly UV rays. With the destruction of the ozone layer, the temperature of the earth will rise, leading to many ecosystems to go out of order.

With this problem in mind, most institutions have been strict about the amount of resources they consume and release. In the article I have found on TIMES, Brown — the president of the Earth Policy Institute ー”aruges for a worldwide carbon tax to be phased in at $20 per ton each year between 2008 and 2020, topping out at $240 per ton” (20o9, McConnico). This article adds, that this price may seem too much, hwoever, “Brown points out that even a carbon tax higher than $240 per ton wouldn’t cover all the environmental and health costs of burning fossil fuels, from climate change to air pollution–related illnesses”(2009, McConnico).

“And while it’s difficult to imagine any politician standing up for such a tax, he reminds us that we already have a precedent for a heavy tax that takes into account negative externalities and attempts to discourage consumption: cigarette taxes” (2009, McConnico).

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1700189,00.html#ixzz0ftKxvEo1

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