Gas prices are far lower than they have been as of late.
The price of gas right now makes life pretty enjoyable for the driver’s wallet.
I have not paid over $20.00 for gas for a long time, which is comforting, to say the least. As college students we always like when bills go down rather than up.
With that being said, we still need to understand that gas consumption is bad for the environment.
We are college students. Chances are you are an educated member of society. You know the facts about the environment.
We all know it is easier to drive and just forget about our planet. It is hard to care. It is hard to make tough choices like walking to campus or trying to reduce your carbon footprint.
But it truly is our job at this point. We cannot continue our normal lives. We see the effects of climate change —extreme weather, smog and overall pollution.
I am no expert on climate change, as I am sure most of you aren’t either. With that being said, scientists seem pretty certain about our climate.
We pay them the big bucks to know what they are talking about.
Whether they are right or not is not that big of a scare. What is the worst thing that happens if we cut back on our greenhouse gas emissions?
With gas prices down it is far too easy to do nothing but keep filling it up.
Though it is nice, please remember the big picture. We are the keepers of this blue marble. It is our job to manage our resources responsibly.
It might not seem like you are changing that much when you forgo your car and walk, but it takes small acts to get the big action started.
Gas prices are down, enjoy it, go take a Sunday drive every now and then.
Let’s remember though, we still have to find an alternative.
>>>What is the worst thing that happens if we cut back on our greenhouse gas emissions?
Oh… Oh child, let me tell you.
Oil and electricity drive the modern world.
Computers, lights, air conditioning all run on electricity which in many places is produced by coal. Now coal is not the cleanest source of energy by any means but it is relatively cheap. Wind and geothermal are other sources but they are considerably more expensive; that’s why we don’t voluntarily use them much. Every business uses this electricity, some more than others. This is an expense of business. By requiring reductions in greenhouse gases, you increase the cost of business which decreases total production of the economy.
Oil is related. Many people drive cars to go to work. Trucks transports goods over distance. Merchant ships allow bulk trade with foreign countries. All of these mediate trade in the economy, which is yet another cost of business. In the same way, increased cost of business decreases activity in the economy
This decrease in activity in the economy has always been at the expense of people’s standards of living, jobs, wages, etc. That is the trade off we have always faced when dealing with environmental issues.
And before you say green energy creates jobs, no it doesn’t. The jobs that are created are at the expense of other jobs that are destroyed to pay for the more expensive energy.
This is why nuclear energy has always been the golden goose.
However, for some ridiculous reason, environmentalists like to block nuclear energy all the time. Reference California which wouldn’t have had such a drought problem if environmentalists hadn’t blocked desalination plant production.
Whenever you say something related to economics, ALWAYS recognize that there is a trade off.
Because that’s what the entire field of economics is about.