Contention one - Climate Change

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CONTENTION TWO: ECONOMY

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says, if a carbon tax on GHGs is placed $50 per metric ton of CO2 and with the annual emissions being 6.8 billion, the United States would collect $340 billion each year. This would raise a total of nearly $1.2 trillion during its first decade. In addition, total U.S. emissions of CO2 would be about 8 percent lower over that period than they would be without the policy.

IMPACT : BALANCED BUDGET

A carbon tax could be used to help balance budgets writes Ralph Nadar. Extending the tax cuts to all but the top 2 percent – would cost $171 billion each year in lost revenue. Preventing cuts to nondefense spending would cost $55 billion. Continuing to pay unemployment benefits would cost $26 billion. A carbon tax would pay for all of this and then some.

CONTENTION THREE: AGRICULTURE

The demand for world agriculture output will grow exponentially over coming decades due to world population growth and expanding world economies says Don Hofstrand. At the same time, the agriculture sector will be impacted by changes in climate that will challenge the productivity of the world’s agriculture resources. Rising greenhouse gases will challenge the agriculture sector climate change is already beginning to have a negative impact on global crop production levels. Maize production would have been about six percent higher and wheat production about four percent higher had the climate trends not existed.

IMPACT: LOSS OF FOOD

The effects of climate change was already costing the global economy a potential 1.6 percent of annual output or about $1.2 trillion a year, and this could double to 3.2 percent by 2030 if global temperatures are allowed to rise. The losses to agriculture and fisheries alone could amount to more than $500 billion per year by 2030. For us, it means losing about 4 million metric tons of food grain, amounting to about $2.5 billion. Adding up the damages to property and other losses, we are faced with a total loss of about 3-4 percent of GDP. The United States could see a 2.1 percent reduction in their potential GDPs by 2030.

THUS WE AFFIRM