Carbon Tax
Among many of the highly speculated taxes a country has to choose from, carbon tax is gaining some approval. According to the Carbon Tax Center; Australia, parts of Canada, Ireland, and other nations have already imposed a carbon tax. The tax rates vary from five dollars to thirty dollars per metric ton of carbon dioxide released into the air by companies. But this information may leave you with questions of your own. For example: if this tax was implemented to where you live, how it would affect you, or you might be thinking, what is carbon. Or maybe you’re wondering what might this do to the carbon emissions already being released in your area?
First off, let’s learn where carbon dioxide comes from and what it’s made from. Carbon dioxide comes from using fossil fuels. We use fossil fuels every day to operate vehicles, buildings, and even certain power tools. What do all of these have in common besides running off of fossil fuels? Some form of combustion engine. As the fossil fuel goes through a combustion engine, the carbon atoms bond with the oxygen (one carbon atom bonded with two oxygen atoms) that is already in the air and produce carbon dioxide known as CO2 (Overview of Greenhouses Gases). So the question remains, what is carbon dioxide?
Carbon dioxide is described by the Environmental Protection Agency as “the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities” (Overview of Greenhouses Gases). This particular greenhouse gas is a “colorless, odorless, and non-poisonous gas” (Carbon Dioxide Emissions) that stays resident in the Earth’s atmosphere. This is bad, because as the sun emits heat (solar heat) to the Earth and the CO2 traps that heat in the Earth; causing global warming.
Now, le...
... middle of paper ...
... be given and to whom, if any; and do the benefits of a CO2 tax outweigh the cons (emitting more CO2 into the atmosphere).
Though there are countries that have applied CO2 tax and have had great results. Would it be a viable way for the U.S. to wean itself off of fossil fuels and into a new age of technology? Only time will tell. There are better ways to fuel your vehicles and power your buildings after all.
Works Cited
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/co2.html
Overview of Greenhouse Gases
http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=6323
Glossary of Statistical Terms, Carbon Dioxide Emissions
http://www.carbontax.org/progress/where-carbon-is-taxed/
Carbon Tax Center
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/23/usa-carbon-tax-idUSL2N0E323B20130523
Reuters, U.S. carbon tax could boost revenue, curb climate change - report
The issue presented in this paper is how one can aim to reduce the amounts released, and what the best ways to solve this problem are. This has been long debated amongst scientists, businessmen, Industry-owners, and politicians amongst many other eminent figures in society. The four major approaches to reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere include: subsidies of alternative energy, cap and trade, carbon taxes, and command and control regulation. We will examine and compare the effectiveness of two of these methods: The carb...
The key challenge that US policy must address the reduction of greenhouse gases while growing the economy. Recovery Act spending acted as a stimulus package to revive an economy heavily affected by the GFC(Aldy, 2012 p 3). While the recovery funds were aimed at stimulating the economy, President Obama stressed the importance of the development of renewable energies in his first State of the Union address (Roberts, Lassiter, & Nanda, 2010 p 3).
Carbon footprint can be defined as the amount of greenhouse gases an individual produces at a time through diverse activities. A person’s carbon footprint is the sum of all emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), which were induced by an individual’s daily activities for a given time frame. CO2 is one of the many greenhouse gases that are responsible for causing global warming which we are currently experiencing today. Carbon footprint is an extremely powerful tool which we can utilize to understand the impact that our personal activities have on global warming.
Carbon dioxide or CO2 is known to be one of a number of gases that are astonishingly transparent to the visible light that falls on the Earth from the Sun, but it absorb the infra-red radiation that emitted by the warm surface of our Earth, to prevents its loss into space. Moreover, CO2 has varied considerably and this affected the Earth’s temperature. Most common source of this CO2 is known as the fossil fuel. Fossil fuels are primarily coal, hydrocarbons, natural gas, or fuel oil that formed from the remains of the dead plants and also animals. The burning fossil fuel that has been created by humans is the largest source of emissions of the carbon dioxide.
In practice they are not that significant, however, or even they can generate revenue that can be rebated to consumers or used to lower other taxes. According to the research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), economic growth is only slightly affected by the efficient climate policies; for example, the estimated costs of just 2°C of global warming would be of the order of 0.5–2% of global GDP by 2030. It means reducing emissions by 20% would cost less than 1% of economic growth, which is not
Earth’s carbon levels have followed a natural cycle throughout the past 800,000 years where the carbon dioxide concentration varied from 180 ppm (parts per million) and 280 ppm which resulted in several changes in the environment.. In the grand scheme of Earth, these changes are miniscule and have stayed within the natural cycle. But when looking through the eyes of humans, these changes are drastic causing ice ages, draughts, and rain for years (Goldstein 6). During the last century carbon dioxides levels in the atmosphere have become significantly larger than they ever have in the past 800,000 years. Today these levels are at 390 ppm and show no signs of stopping which will cause temperatures to rise because carbon is a greenhouse gas. When a greenhouse gas, such as carbon dioxide or water vapor are present in the atmosphere, they absorb the heat that the Earth is giving off, creating a thermal blanket over Earth trapping in heat (Houghton 20).
All of these sayings mean the exact same thing, no matter how one says it. I believe there are more convenient ways to solve climate change; and if the government would implement a carbon tax on companies they would then be forced to re-evaluate all the carbon they emit to the environment and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases, which will lessen their impact on the environment.... ... middle of paper ... ... Dalhousie Law Journal 35.1 (2012): 127-178.
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/>. Cooper, Richard M. Alternatives to Kyoto: the Case for a Carbon Tax. Rep. of Harvard University. Web. The Web.
CO2 is naturally present in the atmosphere, known as the carbon cycle. Natural occurring CO2 comes from volcanoes and decaying plants and animals (Where Does Carbon Dioxide Come From?, n.d.). However, human induced activities can alter the natural carbon cycle, to include how the atmosphere absorbs the CO2 (Overview of Greenhouse Gases, 2015). Scientists assert that the majority of CO2 emissions is attributed to human activities, up to 82% (Where Does Carbon Dioxide Come From?, n.d.). The three human sources that contribute to the global warming process by means of CO2 emissions: burning fossil fuels, cement production, and deforestation.
Air pollution and greenhouse gases are the reason for the planet as it is today; the reason why we see campaigns flooding the media informing us to ‘switch off’, ‘save the planet’ and ‘turn down the heat’ and the reason why the government is trying to develop a successful scheme, such as the carbon tax scheme, to reduce air pollution caused by major industries. Air pollution and greenhouse gases are the two immediate causes of global warming and climate change. Air pollution occurs when chemicals or particulate matter enter the atmosphere. They can cause damage to living organisms on the planet, as well as destruction to the natural and synthetic environment (Energy Environment.net 2008). Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that absorb infrared radiation emitted from the earth. They trap infrared radiation in the form of heat, and hence contribute to global warming. Anthropogenic greenhouse gases are a direct result of air pollution. They are the physical gases emitted that cause air pollution. Naturally occurring greenhouse gases also have an influence on the earth’s atmosphere, though it is not as conspicuous as anthropogenic causes. Together, air pollution and greenhouse gases are intensifying climate change and global warming on a world-wide basis.
The Atmospheric Cycle is focused mainly on the atmosphere, the chemicals in it, and how it affects the climate/weather. The atmosphere itself contains many gases that are important to living being on Earth. Some of them are gases that help the environment and humans, while other gases damage our environment and do not benefit humans. Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Chlorofluorocarbon are gases that are harmful to the environment. These gases are also known as greenhouse gases because they trap the heat inside the Earth and speed up global warming. Methane and Chlorofluorocarbon are the most harmful to Earth as they damage the ozone layer and speed up global warming very efficiently. Carbon Dioxide is not that harmful as plants have the ability to get rid of it and is necessary to life on Earth. But, excess amounts of it can engage the greenhouse effect and speed up global warming. To this date there are 720 gigatons of carbon in the atmosphere. This is a lot more than the normal amount of carbon dioxide on Earth and this is speeding up global warming. Carbon Dioxide is also involved in the carbon cycle, which is responsible for moving carbon through the environment and through the atmosphere. The first step of the carbon cycle is when carbon is recycled into the environments through photosynthesis and plants. ...
14 February 2017 Rick Perry Secretary of Energy, United States Department of America, Dear Mr. Perry: I am writing to you in regards to a recent article entitled Republicans Offer to Tax Carbon Emission, which appeared in Scientific American Magazine on February 8, 2017. This article reported that a group of Republicans in the Climate Leadership Council of United States of America released a carbon-tax-and-divided plan to reduce carbon emissions to fight climate change. The carbon tax proposal indicated that tax carbon emissions would start at $40 a ton and rise $5 each year to cut emissions. The non-profit Carbon Tax Center decided on an increase of $5 tax on carbon emissions because other countries like Great Britain and China who have
The amount of CO2 in a planet's atmosphere affects the temperature of the planet. As more and more CO2 builds up in the atmosphere, less heat can escape and the planet gets hotter. The CO2 traps radiation from the sun like a greenhouse. This is called global warming or the greenhouse effect. Global warming is becoming a serious problem and CO2 is the major cause. The earth is now warmer than it has been in 1000's of years. The amount of CO2 deposited in the earth's atmosphere from human activities is expected to double by the year 2050. It could possible increase by four in the future with developing countries, such as China, anxious to improve their standard of living.
Third, we are able to use non-fossil fuels. For example, there is solar energy. Solar energy does not emit carbon dioxide into the air, therefore we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Also solar energy is safer than any other energy like nuclear power.
The carbon dioxide, also known as a greenhouse gas, remains in the air trapping heat and gradually warming the planet. Other greenhouse gases such as: methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor also contribute to this slow warming. According to Live Science, The state of these gases being trapped is called the greenhouse effect, which is one of the leading causes of global warming (Lallanillia). All the gases are created differently and have different effects on the earth.