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| Union of Concerned Scientists |
My research question to help me study the economic principle is “ What is the true impact that our current energy source of coal and oil on our environment?”
The article published in August 2016 titled “The Hidden Cost of Fossil Fuels” demonstrates this economic principle by arguing/showing that these energy suppliers do great damage to our environment and while renewable energy sources are readily available, we still choose to use fossil fuels.
First, fossil fuels most definitely have one cost and that is money. Thousands of dollars on a rate that is steadily increasing year after year. This rate will keep increasing until the earth is destroyed and there is no more fossil fuels left to use. Solar power on the other hand, has a high installment cost but it is rate that trends downwards and actually saves money from year to year and doesn’t emit toxins into the environment. These are real costs but there are many hidden costs to fossil fuels as well.
Second, there are many externalities to society as a whole when it comes to fossil fuels. These “are sometimes easy to see, such as pollution and land degradation, and sometimes less obvious, such as the costs of asthma and cancer, or the impacts of sea level rise.” These are some hidden costs and they are very easy to ignore because they barely affect any of us in our everyday lives.
Third, even with these hidden costs and the increasing rate of fossil fuels we still continue stay steady with fossil fuels because they are the easiest way of life and they are not outside of the “norm”. They are what some might say “the backbone of our economy and it is one of our biggest trade items and funds millions of jobs across the world. In my next blog post I will research the question: How can switch happen and what year could it happen realistically?
In my next blog post I will research the question: How can switch happen and what year could it happen realistically?
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