Preventing Global Warming

Global warming, more widely known as global climate change, is an incredibly complex problem. Although not the sole source of global climate change, humans clearly have some responsibility for global climate change. From an economists viewpoint, the human contribution to global climate change results from economic incentive structures in the economy. For example, a simply way to release less carbon is to use less energy. A typical consumer could drive less, or drive slower, and thus consumer less gasoline. Most consumers have not made that choice because it is inconvienient to do so. Thus, many consumers perceive the cost of reducing pollution (for example, the increase in travel time resulting from driving slower) is larger that the cost of polluting (the cost of extra gasoline to drive faster) and they make the simple choice to pollute. They do not do so with evil intent, rather they are making a simple economic decision based upon their personal best interest. The attached document, which discusses the issue of human contribution to global climate change, is a power point presentation presented as part of a talk with Phi Alpha literary society at Illinois College on March 2, 2007.