Sha Ni
Sep 16th 2008
Environmental Studies
C.E #1
Improving Our Environment and Economy
On Monday September 15th, there was a speech called “Solving Global Warming, Improving Our Economy” at 6:00 pm in the Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge. The speaker who is from University of Texas at Austin dedicates himself to solving global warming through industrial productions. His lecture shows that how to solve global warming through economy. It is an appeal and education for the general public.
In the speech, it presents that industry has technical limit. We have 80 percent productions which is technical production, but there are only 60 percent productions actually need using technology. Therefore, this causes the waste of energy. There are so many gases which cause global warming is produced by hi-tech, such as the burning of fossil fuel and the gasoline etc. So how to solve global warming is to make small difference between “use” and “actually use”; it means we should reduce the waste of energy.
Then how solving global warming relates to improving our economy? There is an example provided: the rising price of Carbon Tax. Since the Carbon Tax cost too much and it is rising, the use is declining. Therefore, as the use decreases, the more money we can save. In the 40 percent of productions we use are the productions of technology; however, there are only 25 percent of productions we need are the productions of technology. In this speech, it appeals that everyone should save the energy; don’t use hi-tech. Here is the speech’s purpose: not only solving the global warming through reduction of use of energy, but also improving our economy through saving money. Here is a smart method to save energy: an idea called “Drive less, pay less insurance”. It calculates that driving costs 12 cents per mile, if people drive less, they can save their money. This idea uses economic way smartly to save gases in order to reduce the pollution from cars. In New York, it is very difficult to park, it encourages people to walk more or take subway. This way also reduces the pollution and saving the cost of driving which is more expensive than taking subway. There is also a method to solve the problem that the electricity costs too much; some local governments try to give benefits back if reducing the amount of use. All these methods declare the opinion of the speaker: solving global warming by reducing the waste of use and technical productions; it improves our economy that decreases our cost as well. “If we can solve the global warming smartly, we can solve any problems”.
In my opinion, the world we live in is becoming more and more intolerable because of environmental destruction. Bird flu and SARS are two typical examples that environmental destruction may threaten our life. Besides, forest destruction, water and air pollution result in decrease of planting land and unpleasant weather. This lecture main focuses on the waste of energy. I am impressed by the very smart way that using the economic idea to achieve the “both benefits” between environment and economy. Nowadays, people always believe the contradiction between environment and economy. Many of us believe that only by sacrificing environment, we can achieve the development in economy; or only by ceasing the development in economy, we can solve the environmental problems. This lecture totally changes this idea. Environment and economy can be balanced. “Solving Global Warming, Improving Our Economy”, this idea becomes more and more popular all over the world.
As we know, the Olympic game was held in Beijing, China in 2008. China is well-known as its very serious pollution, especially the huge amount of gases which cause the global warming more seriously. Chinese government realized that the Olympic game which would bring more people and activities here must cause the pollution more seriously. Therefore, the government implements a new idea called “Odd and Even”. It means that if your car number is odd, you should drive on Monday, Wednesday and Friday only; if your car number is even, you should drive on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday only. The government will pay back some of your road tax as benefit. It encourages people to walk more and take shuttle or subway. Improving the environment and solving the global warming; at the same time, people save their money by the reduction of drive cost and get benefit from the decreasing of tax as well. This implement presents that the balance between the environment and economy. In response to the implement, the quality of weather becomes better obviously and it is the best quality in the past 10 yeas. Moreover, most importantly, this method decreases the amount of SOx, NOx and COx which are the main harmful gases cause the global warming.
Here is another example. In China, when you go shopping in supermarket or shops, you will have to pay for bags if you want some. This method reduces people’s request by using economic way. It efficiently decreases the pollution of “white trash” which is usually burned. The reduction of “white trash” prevents from producing noxious gases. Both two examples show that China, as a seriously polluted country, is trying to improve its environment; most importantly, these two examples show that “Solving Global warming, Improving Our Economy”, this idea is meaningful for both environment and economy. It is the best way to keep balance between improvement of environment and development of economy.
In modern society, we tend to become more and more aware of our living environment or physical environment, because our environment is not clean as before. So many people now choose their house as to its environment but not its location and expenses to afford it. As we all know, the environment pollution is more and more serious during these years, especially the global warming which is threatening us most. What we could do is to make great efforts in protecting environment gradually. As the government has taken measure in pollution, common people, we also try to protect it and make it remain clean. We have already started to reduce our waste of energy. Although we have managed to protect the environment to a certain extent, such as some methods are presented in this lecture to get the “both benefits” between environment and economy”, it is still a very long way to go.