A Tax to Help the Environment

 Julia Pustizzi  

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/business/a-carbon-tax-that-america-could-live-with.html?ref=airpollution

     On August 31, 2013 N. Gregory Mankiw published the article " A Carbon Tax that America Could Live With". This article can be found on The New York Times website in the science tab.

     A lot of American's don't realize how their everyday actions emit a whole lot of carbon into our air. This carbon can lead to global warming from excess gasses in the atmosphere, and pollute our air that we breathe. Mankiw discusses a proposed tax or fee that could be charged for actions that emit carbon into the environment.

     Actions that we take part in everyday that emit carbon into the air are driving a car, heating a house, using coal generated electricity etc. Since, these actions are actions that people may need to take part in everyday, they don't think about what they are doing to our environment. Sure there are many ways individuals could reduce their own carbon footprint, but a lot of people aren't even going to try because they are too busy and sometimes, the environmental friendly options are more expensive.

      N. Gregory Mankiw, professor of economics at Harvard and former advisor of George W. Bush, states in the article,"The main question is how we, as a society, ensure that we all make the right decisions, taking into account both the personal impact of our actions and the externalities. There are three approaches. "

     Externalities are the effects of a persons personal impact on others. The three approaches discussed are to appeal to individuals’ sense of social responsibility, produce fewer carbon emitting products and machines, and to charge a tax on everyday carbon emitting actions. This article focuses on what adding a tax could do for our environment. If Americans are charged a tax to do things that emit carbon. they will realize how maybe there are other options instead of having to pay all this money. For example buying a hybrid or battery powered car. Americans will also get more of a sense of what they are actually doing to the environment and how important it is to be green.

     The carbon emissions effect all organisms on Earth. It could possibly make the climate change which would endanger the organisms in cold climate areas like Antarctica, and cause the sea levels to rise and cover land if the ice from Antarctica melts. Also, our air could be so polluted in the future that is would be unhealthy to breathe if no one changes anything about the emissions now.

    I can relate to this article because I do emit carbon everyday just like any other individual. I could take some of the ideas mentioned in this article to reduce my carbon footprint by carpooling and taking public transportation. When I go into Boston with my friends, we can take the train instead of someone having to drive another car on the road and emit more carbon.

      I learned in biology class how if one organism in an environment is taken away, it causes many other problems for the other organisms in the area because it throws off the food web. This article in a way can relate to this concept that if the amount of carbon being emitted isn't changed, it can effect one thing first but would lead to messing up other things as well. (Like my Antarctica example.) I would recommend this article because it really gives you a sense of what we are doing to our environment that we don't even know about.