Growing concerns about the environment’s well-being has become a focal point for many governments all over the world. Governments have allocated a substantial amount of resources and capital in an attempt to reduce pollution. Air pollution has led to harmful health effects and a depletion of the ozone layer. The depletion of the ozone layer results in higher levels of UVB reaching the Earth’s surface. This added UVB has been linked with increased cases of cataracts and melanoma development (epa.gov). Government regulations on pollution are costly to the tax payers and to the companies that must abide by these regulations. To reduce the expense of pollution reduction, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein suggest a different governmental approach to improve upon the standard already in place. In Chapter 12 on saving the planet, Thaler and Sunstein use the ideas of choice architecture and gentle nudges to expand the effort of protecting the environment by creating better incentives and feedback.
To control pollution levels, government regulators use a command and control regulation that does not allow flexibility for individuals or companies. Mandates are set that demand a certain reduction in pollution emissions. This lack of freedom of choice, obstructs the concept of libertarian paternalism that Thaler and Sunstein promote. “If the goal is to protect the environment, might good choice architecture be able to help?” (186). Better choice architecture would allow for individuals and companies to have the freedom of choice in regards to environmental protection and would nudge them towards a path better suited to solve the problems with pollution of the environment. The reasons for these environmental problems are that incentives are ins...
... middle of paper ...
...cern of many governments across the globe. Thaler and Sunstein suggest that reduction of pollution and the cost associated with this action can be achieved by improving incentives and feedback of environmental protection through better choice architecture and gentle nudges. I agree with many of the suggestions in this chapter on improving feedback of the actions that have negative environmental consequences. I think I will start being more aware of the impact my choices have on the environment. I could start looking at the disclosures of the companies I buy from and see what impact they have on the environment. I may also start purchasing products that are more energy efficient and advantageous in the long run. Even though these products may be more costly in the short run, I know I will be awarding the companies that are innovating technology for pollution control.
David Suzuki's essay "It Always Costs" explores why technological advancements made in our society are not always in our best interest. He refers to DDT as an example of why some technologies can actually have detrimental effects that will eventually outweigh the benefits they provide. Our heavy use of DDT in the past has caused numerous ecological problems like biomagnification that caused heavy bird mortality. Which is something we could not have predicted would happen. He then tries to come up with a solution to this problem by suggesting we create a panel with many different interests to do a cost/benefits analysis of all new technologies. But no such system can be relied on because our predictive and testing capabilities will always be
The new mechanism = the crowd instead of the old centralized organizations plus the new driver = the quality instead of profit eventually leads to a new highly participatory society redefining our own relationship to the environment.
David, Suzuki. “Carbon Offsets Are One of Many Solutions Needed for Global Warming.” Current Controversies: Carbon Offsets. Ed. Debra A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Print.
Laws are often changing. A law needs to keep up with the changing views and values of a society. Things like events and technology are just two examples of what may produce a law or a change to a law. A law would need to accommodate a technology to regulate it for safety and how it’s used. Events also need to be regulated by law for safety and if it was a terrible event (9/11), then a law, or laws, are needed to prevent it from happening again. Laws pertaining to the environment are always changing because human interaction with the environment is always changing, whether its pollution, hunting, or overusing resources, these things need to be constantly regulated. This paper describes how the Clean Air Act developed and changed. The
This case focuses on corporate obstacles to pollution prevention. Pollution prevention can complex especially for large corporations. There are many different forms of pollution prevention including emissions control devices and incremental changes in existing technology. The author reviews the impact of emissions controlled devices, however the focus of the case study is on incremental changes in existing technology. Incremental changes include substituting one or two steps in a production process or relationship changes between production steps. One example of incremental changes that was provided by the author was eliminating chlorofluorocarbons and saving energy by replacing a refrigeration process with a heath exchanger that can exploit waste cooling from another part of the process. There are three critical decision-making stages for incremental changes; identifying a pollution prevention opportunity, finding a solution appropriate to that opportunity, and implementing that solution. The author discusses the three aspects of an organization (culture, ability to process information, and its politics) and how they impact the decision-making stages.
“At present, the global system for carbon emissions trading is embodied in the Kyoto Treaty,” said Al Gore, which points out that Global Warming is not a national problem, but global problem. The Kyoto Treaty states that parties involved will reduce greenhouse emissions in their nation (United Nations). These facts introduce the idea of transforming this perilous world into an innocuous one. It supports his claim for having a preferable future for all, where there will be no droughts, devastations, deaths, or poverties due to global warming. His repetition of the word “reduce” engages the audience of having a solution to climate change. Mr. Gore continues with his ideas to reduce Global Warming by saying, “...Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CSS)...will play a significant...role as one of the major blocks of a solution to climate crisis.” This fact is an example of a paradox as before this statement he mentioned that CSS, a method to capture the CO2 burned from the burning coal, is an expensive method which most companies resist from using. His use of paradoxes throughout his speech makes the audience rethink their opinions. These statistics are part of many other logically statements that Mr. Gore used to support his claim. Some of these logical procedures include; electronic cars, reduction of renewable
Today, we take many of our natural resources for granted without think about the consequences. For example, cutting down trees, burning fossil fuel, and the consumption of meat. Our ozone layer is becoming weaker and weaker to due factories burning too much fossil fuel. This causes too much carbon dioxide, which affects our ozone layer. If we can limit the amount of natural resources we use on a daily basis, we will be able to see a big change in society.
Our Congress created the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 in order to establish an environmental foundation for mankind. This policy endorses harmony between humans and the vast ecosystems surrounding them. To obtain this goal and provide our future with resources as well, NEPA is separated into two titles. The first title declares the policy in detail while the second title focuses on the Council on Environmental Quality. The CEQ oversees the effectiveness of current methods, the reactions of the environment to those methods, and implements revisions as necessary.
It is becoming increasingly certain that climate change will have severe adverse effects on the environment in years to come. Addressing this issue poses a serious challenge for policy makers. How we choose to respond to the threat of global warming is not simply a political issue. It is also an economic issue and an ethical one. Responsible, effective climate change policy requires consideration of a number of complex factors, including weighing the costs of implementing climate change policies against the benefits of more environmentally sustainable practices.
What is the socially optimum level of production keeping in mind the environment? How should it be achieved? It is at this point that the great economic minds of out time begin to take up arms. Michael Porter, a Professor of Business at the Harvard Business School claims that environmental regulation of businesses will actually give the businesses a competitive advantage over their counterparts in nations with less stringent regulation because it forces them to innovate. Porter claims that by changing their production processes, the businesses will actually lower their production costs (Porter, 97).
PURPOSE: To persuade my audience that we must take action now to control air pollution
...ount of water use and prevent environmental pollution from not producing dying chemical waste to environment. Even though these actions will not solve all environment pollutions, they are good reflection of attempting to steps to increase positive externalities.
United States being a federal system, large number of decisions is not only made by the Federal, but also by state and local governments. Government uses various tools like Law, services, money, taxes, other economic instruments and suasion to influence policies. These tools are unique to the Government and may not be available to private parties. Peters suggest that a huge amount of money flows through the government and it gets redistributed to different people in forms of goods and services (Peters, 2013). Since governments have the resource and rights to influence social agendas, Government has to be involved in policy making. Since public policies are results of collaborations between various groups and backgrounds, the environmental factors contribute as an uncontrollable attribute to policy making. These environmental factors that affect policy making
...sues with environmental concerns with mining and smelting, the economic issue is one of them that tops the list. Something needs to be done to drive the cost of environmental control equipment down. Should this be how the equipment is manufactured differently, made more efficiently, or created with lower cost material.
Regulations provide the baseline environmental standards that industry is required to follow. Without environmental regulations, industry would not be able to meet the same standards by themselves. Environmental regulations may not always be in the best interest of the industry due to their costly and sometimes prohibitive nature. In response to these concerns, the establishment of incentive programs increases the likelihood of industry complying with and potentially exceeding the minimum environmental standard. Incentive programs motivate industry to meet and exceed environmental standards by allowing them to benefit financially by aiming for higher than regulation