Environmental Economics - Essay Example

It is the study of environmental policies and to see how well the businesses abide by these when striving for profits. The major and common costs that these companies levy are air pollution, noise pollution, toxic and solid waste in water harming the water quality and global warming. Since about a decade, these environmental hazards have kept increasing extremely rapidly and rampantly. Thus, there is a now a sense of urgency to get rid of these problems completely. However, this has become very difficult; millions of policies have been formulated by the government and various organizations, but is they still do not produce the desirable results.

One another major issue that has been faced since many years is the 'carbon emission'. Coal is one of the biggest energy resource currently used; it accounts for 50% of the electricity produced in the United States. Today, fossil fuels are a source of 80% of the world's energy needs; coal accounts for 25%, natural gas 21%, petroleum oil 34%, nuclear 6.5%, hydro power 2.2%, and biomass and waste 11%. The resources that are environmental friendly such as geothermal, solar and wind are responsible for only a measly 0.

4% of the overall demand in the world. The US alone produces 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide from coal-burning power plants. Also, it produces great amounts of nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, mercury emissions and other combustible gases when coal is burned. This makes it very clear how harmful the usage of coal is for our environment.The Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a study and made a report called 'The Future Coal' in which they examined all developing countries that try to alleviate global warming and their usage of coal.

This report discusses the hazards of global warming and how countries should restrict the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. It also focuses on how coal remains and important and indispensable part of every country's production, how there is a need to control the carbon emissions and then how these countries need to take care of emissions yet make use of coal to meet urgent and large energy needs. However, at the same time, this reports deals with future technologies that can be used in place of coal to meet the goal of reduced coal emissions.

The main reason why businesses and producers go for coal is that it is inexpensive and abundant. Coal can be used at only a cheap cost of $1 - $2 for each MMBtu compared to $6- $12 for gas and oil (The Future Coal, 2007). Also, coal mines are evenly distributed and spread and can be found everywhere, for example United States, China, India etc; except for only a few regions such as Persian Gulf, where instead are huge oil and gas reserves. The non-carbon emitting resources, mainly nuclear and renewable, are not available everywhere; thus, these areas still rely on coal despite all the policies and awareness of carbon hazards.

The positive point of following this report is that it does not advocate certain policies that improve the environment; it diverts all its findings towards the technologies that can be used if these policies are actually followed by people. It is only natural to ask for an alternative if a certain act is prohibited; and that is exactly what The Future Coal is focusing on. This study focuses on technologies that