Climate Change And Competition

The Keystone Pipeline is raising the issue once again of climate change and the environment  There is a balance that needs to be taken into account when addressing climate change. We occupy a small part of this planet and we cannot lick the climate challenge by ourselves. The issue needs to be addressed on the world stage.

As an advanced country, it is easy for us to talk about doing something concerning CO². However, as places like China, India, Southern Africa, Central and South America, who are concerned about providing the basic necessities to their people, increase their usage of environmentally bad fuels, the result will put us at a significant competitive disadvantage directly hurting our "standard" of living.

A partial answer is to increase funding for alternative energy research so the switch to environmentally friendly fuels is not only good for the planet but also economically prudent. That is why the carbon tax, used for energy research, should be implemented. The rest of the world will also make the point that we are the major contributor to climate change and therefore we should be the ones paying the largest price to correct it.