The Economist article "The case for an environmentalism that builds" describes the need for the world to greatly increase its production of electricity, while also limiting the high amounts of fossil fuel derived emissions in order to slow down the current climate change crisis. Similarly to what we described in class with Kuznet's curve, the article argues that economic growth can lead to a heightened concern for the environment, but that we cannot wait for the global economy to expand to an undetermined level before taking action to improve infrastructure related to the production of electricity. The article describes that building improved and cleaner solutions to electricity production could cost upwards of $1.1 trillion dollars, but by describing to the people the environmental value of taking on these new technologies and tools, the people are more willing to support the government's decision to invest in green technology.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/04/05/the-case-for-an-environmentalism-that-builds
3 comments:
The government has also made strides recently to help combat climate change by altering the discount rate from 3%-7% to 1.7%. This will help fight climate change in the long run because more money will be invested into ways to slow/stop climate change.
We can't keep prioritizing economic growth over environmental protection. The negative consequences of climate change are already starting to become irreversible. The discount rate being high is the reason why people put less value on the future benefits of dealing with climate change. This is why the discount rate needs to be lowered so that the value of future benefits increases.
I think that the increase of renewable energy needs to be the next large economic move for the United States and the rest of the world. Although it would cost $1.1 trillion dollars to grow infrastructure like green energy, overall we would be saving money on the amount of resources we would need to be extracting, and energy prices around the world would drop because these resources are unlimited. Therefore, we would be reducing energy costs after we pay back the debt for the money it would take to invest these infrastructures, which would benefit us in the long run.
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