There have been many ideas and suggestions on a good method to save the environment. One of the suggestions for the reducing of the world’s general carbon footprint is a system called Cap & Trade. Though the initial idea of Cap & Trade is well thought and offering a possible solution, the main problem with this system is the amount of corruption that can occur within some of the parts in the system’s contract. These “devils in the details” have made Cap &Trade less and less appealing to a growing number of people, since they make it possible for companies and industries within Cap & Trade to cheat the main goal of reducing carbon emissions and actually increasing it, winning millions of dollars while doing so.
The idea behind Cap & Trade is to trade carbon pollution in order to reduce the overall production caused by several companies. Scientists estimate that to be back at a healthy carbon emission number, countries will have to reduce carbon pollution by around 80% (at least in the United States). I think the initial thought behind Cap & Trade is actually pretty good and creative, and offering a good proposal of a method to reduce world-wide carbon pollution. However, within the Cap & Trade there are several details that make it really easy for companies to cheat and actually increase carbon productions. The first of these harmful details is often nicknamed “Cap & Giveaway.” This enables major industrial companies to receive many polluting permits for free, which obviously increases the overall carbon produced instead of lowering it. The second “devil” in Cap & Trade is offsetting. The way in which this is supposed to work, companies that reduce their carbon pollution can sell remaining permits to companies who need them, therefore, balancing the amount of pollution caused between the companies. It is here where most of the carbon trading would take place, and where, if it was better thought out, the lowering in carbon emissions would take place by encouraging companies with money. However, it is rather easy for companies to cheat when offsetting. A company could actually sell a permit without really reducing their carbon pollution, therefore allowing other companies to add on more carbon production through false permits. Also, companies can easily alter initial statistics on their carbon emission rates to make it appear as if their current pollution is actually less than their initial number, lying on their efforts to reduce carbon and getting more money and permits to keep polluting. Lastly, most people that are against Cap & Trade claim that this system is actually a distraction from obtaining a working solution. Even the creators of Cap & Trade have admitted that Cap & Trade is not a solution to the environmental and climate crisis. It is mostly just another kind of business to make more and more money.
Although carbon is an essential element of life, I believe carbon footprints exist. Some people consider it crazy for the United States’ government to have declared carbon dioxide as a pollutant, since carbon dioxide is an essential element of life and is naturally found on Earth. To this opinion, I consider the problem is not the actual existence or production of carbon in general. After all, this happens naturally in an environment, and plant life could not exist without it. However, like everything in nature, carbon levels and greenhouse gas levels are balanced when produced naturally. With humans over using carbon and raising the level of carbon emissions significantly from what is naturally produced, it is the excess carbon dioxide released into the air that is referred to in carbon footprints and are bad for the environment, not carbon in general. Kristie Peller, one of the people that argue that carbon dioxide is definitely not a pollutant, mentions that Earth is currently at a carbon deficiency, and the more carbon dioxide we produce, the better it is for plant life on Earth since it will make it grow faster. However, I disagree with this statement. If the scientists’ investigations are correct, and there is indeed a carbon deficiency on Earth, it doesn’t mean that the carbon emissions humans are producing at spiking rates are good for the environment or will help plant life grow faster. There is a reason why the government decided to announce carbon dioxide as a pollutant. After all, carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that, because it’s being produced in excess, is causing global warming by trapping more sunlight that enters the Earth. When one looks at the smoke or exhaust produced in industrial factories and machines such as cars, there is no way to say that the carbon dioxide expelled in these kinds of processes is not polluting the Earth. Carbon dioxide produced in natural processes such as respiration has equilibrium with the surrounding environment and correctly absorbed by plants, so it’s not harmful for the environment.
Global warming, along with environmental and climate crisis, are two large ecological problems that are worsening at worrying rates. The amount of pollution and negative impacts that humans are causing on the environments have forced governments around the world to search for solutions for the crisis. So far, a leading “solution” is the economic system of Cap & Trade, which in general suggests an economic system in which more ecologically friendly businesses gain more money as an encouragement for companies to reduce their carbon pollution. However, the contract is too open for corruption and, though it has a good basis, would not solve the climatic crisis. Until a cleaner alternative to Cap & Trade is found, regular civilians should focus on individually reducing carbon footprints, which are producing negative carbon pollution, and make the difference through the effort of every single person in the world without the need of fancy, easily-corruptive economic systems.