Alternative Approaches to Slowing Global Warming Essay

Alternative Approaches to Slowing Global Warming - Essay Example This paper offers a thorough review of the article â€Å"To Tax or Not to Tax: Alternative Approaches to Slowing Global Warming†, written by William D. Nordhaus. The article written by the author is a comprehensive study and analysis of the various issues relating to global warming from an economic point of view. The articlewas written to find out, how a control by the government on the public goods would help to combat the problem of global warming. The different control mechanisms which are either price controls or quantity controls have undergone a thorough analysis in the article. Along with that the various prospects and the setbacks that the government face relating to these controls have also been discussed by the author. The scientific analysis of the problems of global warming has been provided. This is a constructive approach which would help the reader understand why there is a necessity for the control of pollution. An outline of the source of the problems has been discussed. The issue of climatic changes has been explained with the help of suitable examples. The reader can understand that the emission of various industrial gases are the reasons why the atmosphere around the earth is getting polluted and how it is linked to the changes in the climate. Although the scientists had made the world aware about the negative consequences of global warming a long time back, countries have been instrumental in taking formal actions only at a later stage. In this context the author has put forward the example of United States. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the body that started its functioning with the Kyoto Protocol in 2005. The framework was adopted by the participating industrialized countries where the emissions take place the most. The European Emissions Trading Scheme was an attempt made by the countries of the European Union to tackle the problems of Carbon dioxide emissions in the countries with the implementation of the economic principles (European Environment Agency 11). However, according to the author the Kyoto Protocol had major problems because there was very little scope for inclusion of the other countries. The United States also did not participate in the treaty which acted as a major setback for the success of the mission. The treaty also suffered a failure because the growth in the industrialization took place in the countries that did not come under the purview of the treaty. This is a valid argument put forward by the author because any schemes that are being adopted by the countries have to be remodeled with time. Unless all the countries come forward and participate, a global issue cannot be countered only by a few nations. Therefore Nordhaus posited that the nations did not do enough in the initial stage to combat the pollution levels of their respective countries. Therefore the article does a detailed analysis of the Kyoto Protocol and also tries to look for an alternative solution in case of non viability of the former. The author has presented the first section of the article with global public goods, an example of which is the phenomenon of global warming. The author has describes these goods as those which affect the entire world and are not specific to any country. The global public goods are becoming more prominent with time because of the extensive of use of technology. This representation of global warming is somewhat not appropriate because it is a result of production or consumption of a good and therefore should be considered as a negative externality rather