Sociopolitical Solutions

One of the main things that I took away from this week was the discussion of cap and trade. Before this class I had heard of this but was not really sure what it was or what it entailed. After learning about how it is essentially a system for controlling the carbon emissions and other forms of pollution in the atmosphere that sets a limit on the amount that factories and other companies can produce, but allows other companies to purchase if they have not used their full amount the have been provided. If successful, it allows this mandatory cap on the emissions while at the same time giving flexibility on the issue. This allows for the innovation and efficiency of companies to increase without causing problems to the growth of the economy. I think this is a really good idea because even though it does not provide a long term solution to dealing with climate change, it does seem beneficial in the short term. It is a great example of how we can make changes that are not going to take a lot of commitment, that will still allow us to be environmentally conscious. I think this is a good start but it is not taking emissions out of the air. In theory, this should excuse companies for growing and simply replacing their emissions with those absorbed in other places of the world. However, at a certain point, this is not going to be a good solution to the problem. It is very important to find a balance between economic growth and environmentally responsible decisions because if we try to make drastic changes that will have consequences to our economy, there is simply no way that will be accepted with the way our country is set up. We must continue to grow our economy in order to have it viewed as successful and this is going to get harder as time goes on. Especially with the growing need to find alternative methods of sustainability in order to ensure that we are responsible with what we have and that we do not expend all of our resources and it is too late to make a change. We are making strides in the right direction and need to continue to find new ideas that can be implemented and agreed upon in order to ensure that we can allow our children and grandchildren to experience the beauty of the world in the same way that we have been able to. We can no longer take advantage of what we have been given and must come together to make responsible decisions for the future.