Carbon dioxide has resulted as a big issue, as to deteriorating our environment for the last years. According to Kristie Pelletier’s carbon dioxide video, carbon dioxide has no harm on the environment. I disagree. For, there are many devastating results due to excess carbon dioxide in our environment. Pelletier’s debate states that it is plain ignorant to try to prevent carbon dioxide when “there isn’t even enough”. The government in many countries has already agreed with a system known as the Cap and Trade. This system tries to reduce the carbon dioxide pollutant (extras) by reselling it to another nation. This is, a specific company asks the government for permits to pollute, but they must fulfill with the cap requirements. However, Annie Leonard describes Cap and Trade in her video, The Story of Cap and Trade, as an “ineffective system that just tries to offset the problem by creating another one”. I agree with the fact something has to be done in order to reestablish better ideas that might effectively decrease this problem. Even though I don’t agree that Cap and Trade is completely useless, I agree with Leonard’s idea of creating a system that works even better.

In Leonard’s video, she mentions three basic issues to this Cap and Trade system. She uses the expression, “Cap and Giveaway” as a way to describe this system’s incompetent way of giving away the pollutant, for somebody else to create the same damage. On the other hand, the market has been misleading the economy by giving out free permits to large manufacturing companies in order to keep producing carbon dioxide at higher rates. In my opinion, Cap and Trade isn’t entirely bad, as it seems. Even though there is always some way of offsetting this system by trying to get past the rules, Cap and Trade at least gives companies the initiative to go green. The population each time has a higher demand for more goods nowadays, and even though there is not a clear way to go, many companies have invested money into making their products more environmentally friendly.

The environment is progressively becoming vulnerable to us, humans. If new ideas don’t open up, there is no way our world is going to be able to support us in a few years. Leonard even states that it is possible that whole islands might be covered by water. Even though the current society doesn’t see it as that bad of an issue to be concerned with today (people not really taking responsibility for their actions), there is no way the issue will become less of a problem if the market doesn’t begin acting. Even though Pelletier’s video might be contradictory, carbon dioxide is becoming an excess pollutant and the world needs to act against it. Otherwise, there will be no escape.

What is the solution? There is not one right answer to this question yet. However, it is important that young populations try to go greener on a daily basis. The video clearly demonstrates that the actual system isn’t functioning. The U.S. government subsidizes fossil fuels to almost the double than it does renewable resources. This results in people consuming more fossil fuels that contaminate the planet, rather than renewable resources, resulting in the emission of more damaging greenhouse gases. It is worth considering additional solutions that might help the environment’s state in the world today. It is essential that the market begins considering other ideas. What if people came together to form a big idea? I suggest that new solutions develop quickly, that favor both the human population and the environment, and therefore, help people decrease their emissions. Even though they might cost more at first, as soon as the economy starts heading toward the right direction, carbon dioxide numbers will increasingly get lower.