It is important that a few facts about the climate and humankind are established. The Earth’s climate warms and cools on its own with changes in the Earth’s orbit, the sun’s orbit, volcanic activity, and levels of carbon dioxide …show more content…
As defined by the EPA, greenhouse gases are “gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.” According to the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, “The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth’s surface. When the Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases.” Therefore, when humans release more greenhouse gases into the environment than the Earth can naturally absorb, the global temperature …show more content…
As reported by the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, in 2015 the U.S. used 2280.6 million tonnes of oil equivalent. When broken down into types of energy, oil accounted for 851.6*, gas for 713.6*, coal for 396.3*, nuclear energy for 189.9*, hydroelectric for 57.4*, and renewable for 71.7*. During that same year the U.S. released 6,587 Million Metric Tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases. If real change is to be made to counteract climate change, a climate tax needs to be implemented. In British Columbia the government already enforces a carbon tax. The tax worked and according to a study by economists at Duke University and the University of Ottawa, it “reduced emissions by 5 to 15 percent with “negligible effects on aggregate economic performance”. At first, there might be a small uproar over increased prices, but the carbon tax would accelerate accessibility and use of renewable energy so that after a while fossil fuels would be mostly replaced by renewables. However, under the current United States government administration, it is unlikely, if not impossible, that a carbon tax will be passed, owing to the fact that president Donald J. Trump does not believe in climate change. Here is his exact words on the matter, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” Fortunately for humanity, renewables will slowly take over fossil