subject: Carbon Tax and Carbon Credits Explained [print this page] Over the past one hundred years the capitalist economy we live in has improved our way of life. It's enabled us to catapult itself through the centuries. Capitalism has provided the necessary ingredients for our economic recipe to work, to provide us with goods beyond our imagination and to build great cities. The free markets accurately reflect the supply & demand within our nations. It allows us to price everything from agriculture to medicine. Capitalism effectively prices even our most valued resources.
However despite all of our humanities achievements. capitalism fails to acknowledge the environmental impact of all of our actions. Since 1950 carbon emissions have risen over 300%. According to scientific data. Climate emissions by man are to blame for global warming. The increase in earth global temperature has had negative effects on the environment. Carbon emissions have melted the polar ice caps, destroyed wildlife habitats and has significantly increased the number and intensity of tropical storms. Global sea levels have risen 4-8 inches in the past century and global warming could eventually lead to an underwater Manhattan. So how can we use capitalism our number one tool to solve climate change... our number one problem.
Right now people are not jumping ahead of line to get on the "green" band wagon. So why not use our money? Which is humanities #1 motivation tool... Introducing Carbon Credits Explained. Carbon credits are these finical instruments that represent a reduction of carbon emissions into our atmosphere. These carbon credits via a carbon tax place a monetary price on our populating activities. People can earn more on carbon credits because there is money/rewards to be earned by reducing co2 emissions. Furthermore by trading these carbon credits we can harness the power of the free market to reduce carbon emissions at the lowest cost for society.
This is how a carbon tax works? Whenever oil is being burned it will release toxins into our atmosphere. A limit on carbon emissions will make industries more cautious about putting co2 into our atmosphere because it will cost them. It will be in their best interest to minimize global warming via carbon emissions because it will produce a carbon tax for that particular business and the U.S. will break free of its oil addiction. The carbon cap will make sure we don't go over the limit and should set us on track to clean energy freedom.
Many individuals doubt if this new experiment using carbon tax and carbon credits will succeed? Many environmentalist like this idea of tackling there problem that their agenda have pursued for so long, but many economist don't think the economics add up. Many critics say its just a scheme to get the developing world down (i.e. China, Brazil, India, etc.). They say this because in these nations they don't have the luxury of switching back and fourth to different energy methods.
Some businesses have already created such trading systems to reduce global warming. The Chicago climate exchange is the world's first and North America's only active voluntary, legally binding trading exchange for carbon credits. With these small steps we can finally get on track to solving global warming by using carbon tax and carbon credits.
