This Wednesday, an interesting environmental panel was lead by three professors specialized in environment-related field. Several environmental issues are stressed and discussed at the panel.

To begin with, professor asked what are the concerns that most of us have about environmental issues. Global warming and fracking were raised by two of the students. Panelists use a series of evidence and examples to illustrate the different environmental consequences caused and possible solution.

A particular thing that I was curious about was the possible approaches to internalize the externalities especially on a global scale. As we all know, production can cause negative externalities and if the market is socially efficient, the pollution price should be paid by the producer. As the professor mentioned, we can use the environmental tax on the industrial production. However, I think this price is hard to be quantified, because the pollutant could disperse via air, river and ocean. Thus, the producer could pollute the environment “at no cost”. On a global scale, if there is no effective agreement between different countries, the dispersion of pollution could be hardly controlled among different countries which cause negative externalities. What’s more, the producers are also inclined to understate the pollution that they have caused, which could be another factor impacting the market result.