Sergio Sanchez

Opinion Piece
The University of Texas at El Paso
RWS 1302

Since the conception of the notion that our consumption of fossil fuels is the main cause
of global warming there have been many detractors of the idea. Through the use of modern
science and years of researching the phenomenon scientists have come to the overwhelming
conclusion that we as a species are destroying our planets ecosystems by perpetuating a climate
in which temperatures are ever increasing. The natural processes of the Earth that are meant to
inhibit such climate change have been overcome by the sheer speed at which we are heating up
our planet. The Arctic ice caps are melting faster that they can freeze and this phenomenon
ultimately affects the world at large. Global Warming is real and it is happening right now. Many
engineers and scientists have attempted to propose solutions to the problem of global warming
from reducing global carbon dioxide emissions to covering arctic ice in huge white blankets that
would reflect the suns heat rays. Needless to say, none of these solutions have really caught on
with the general public and global warming continues to affect our ecosystems. I would like to
propose two ideas that I believe would be able to address the issue of global warming. My first
proposition would involve our government incentivizing people for polluting less and producing
less carbon emissions. My second proposition would involve the government incentivizing
private companies to emit fewer pollutants into the atmosphere.
Our carbon dioxide emissions are expediting the process in which the natural green house
effect takes place in our atmosphere. These pollutants are warming the planet and leading to
disastrous effects in the Arctic and now those effects are reverberating around the world today. It
seems that, despite overwhelming evidence and the support of the scientific community, people
do not regard global warming as a huge issue in our modern society. Yet, global warming is one
of the most threatening issues that faces our world today simply because it has the capability of
affecting everyone and everything around us. From the food we eat to the air we breathe, climate

change can affect our crops, our water supplies and our disease management. Although there
have been governmental campaigns to inform the populous about the dangers of global warming
and what the citizenry could be doing to address the issue none of the ideas have really taken
root. According to the U.S Energy Information Administration (2016) U.S. motor gasoline and
diesel (distillate) fuel consumption for transportation in 2015 resulted in the emission of about
1,105 million metric tons of CO2 and 440 million metric tons of CO2, respectively. I propose a
solution to the peoples indifference to the problem. I suggest that the government should provide
tax breaks and other forms of economic incentives such as tax returns and other economic
incentives that would make people take notice of the problem and encourage people to make
changes in their lifestyles. For example, with todays tracking and GPS technology, cars could be
monitored and when reporting taxes to the IRS one could opt to reveal travel information in
vehicles and that spent on more environmentally friendly modes of transportation. This, I
believe, would allow people to really make changes on how they view the issue at hand and all
the benefits they could receive by complying with a new method of transportation regulation.
My next idea involves a more aggressive method of incentivizing large
private corporations to comply with regulating the pollutants they emit.
According to the Guardian (2013) just 90 companies caused two-thirds of
man-made global warming emissions.
Large corporations love tax incentives as much as people do but with corporations you get larger
amounts of carbon dioxide emissions and without the proper incentives or enforcement these
corporations would continue on their destructive path and further global warming. The
government could in fact provide economic incentives to these companies with the condition that

they comply and accept these new emissions regulations and they would most like accept them.
If they do not, the government would have no other option than to force them to accept these
regulations and enforce a sort of incentive probation that would entail that the corporation cannot
receive economic incentives for a few years since they denied them in the first place. This may
sound harsh and totalitarian to some degree but these corporations are not people and do not have
the same privileges people do. If something is not done about these corporations pollution we
will reach a point of no return in our global climate and the world will be too hot to function
properly and future generations would suffer the consequences of a world gripped by erratic
changes in climate.
Since global warming is such a prevalent issue in our world today and it has the potential
of affecting us and future generations if the issue is not addressed once and for all, I do not feel
that my propositions and policy change ideas are so radical. Climate change can be fixed and the
Arctic ice can regenerate and all of the displaced species can be helped and all the changing
ecosystems can be reverted back to normal if only we were to take real action on the personal,
corporate, and governmental fronts. Because only we have the power to fix a problem that we
created and have perpetuated throughout the ages.

References
U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis. (n.d.).
Retrieved May 09, 2016, from http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=307
Goldenberg, S. (2013). Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming
emissions. Retrieved May 09, 2016, from
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-companies-man-made-global-emissions-climate-change