Does Russell Wilson Deserve to be the highest paid Player in the NFL?

Does Russell Wilson Deserve to be the highest Player In the NFL?
Ryan Szewczyk

Quarterback is the most important position in the NFL. Therefore quarterbacks are the highest paid players in the NFL. Last week on April 19th former Wisconsin badger Russell Wilson signed the richest deal in NFL history. Adding another four seasons with Seattle and $140 million in new money. Wilson will be under contract through 2023 and he will be getting paid 35 million dollars per year starting this upcoming season. Not to mention the eye opening 65 million dollar signing bonus. Wilson’s signing bonus was 9 million dollars more than Aaron Rodgers. Which most people think Arron is the better of the two. So does he deserve to be the highest paid player in the NFL


When you think of top quarterbacks in the NFL you think of names like Brees, Brady and Rodgers, not Russell Wilson. Don’t get me wrong he is an above average quarterback but he doesn’t deserve to be the highest paid. Wilson has won one super bowl in 2013 and has not been back to the Conference championship since 2014. Last season the Seahawks went 10-6 and lost to the Cowboys in the wildcard. According to Footballrefernece.com Wilson was 20th in the league in total pass completions, 18th in total yards and 19th in completion percentage. He was3rd in touchdowns thrown but that still isn’t the numbers you want for the highest paid quarterback in the NFL. Wilson’s greatest asset as a quarterback is his ability to extend plays with his feet. No quarterback has rushed for more yards since 2012 than he has, but those playmaking instincts often get him into trouble. Despite dropping back the fewest times among regular quarterbacks over the last three seasons, Wilson has taken the second-most sacks in the NFL.

Granted, Wilson’s interception percentage has been 2.5 percent or lower but he hasn’t been expected to throw it much either. In 56 career games, he has attempted 30 or more passes just 15 times.Wilson has been assisted by a superior and bludgeoning defense for his entire career. It also helps that he’s got Marshawn Lynch in his backfield. When the Seahawks won the superbowl in 2013 Seattle had the best defense in the NFL and he only threw for 206 yards.

To conclude on one hand, it’s hard to argue against Wilson’s value as a winner, and he certainly has all the intangibles  like  leadership, character, poise to give out an elite quarterback contract. The numbers, however, tell the story of a good but not great quarterback, who probably shouldn’t get the top-of-the-market money that is reserved for the absolute best players in the league.

Augmented Realty, the Next Revolutionary Technology?

Augmented Reality, the Next Revolutionary Technology?
Author: Dominic Leonard

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the future? Flying cars that automatically drive, virtual reality, robots, do any of these ideas pop up? Most likely yes. While some of these technologies are just a figment of the imagination, some of them are real, and very well could be used by the public today, or in the upcoming years. We are in an era of rapid technological evolution, and while the public’s opinion may be controversial at best when discussing the future of technology, all these modern technologies are well known. All except one: Augmented reality.

Augmented reality (AR) is when a device takes the existing surroundings around the user, and adds computer generated images to it. This is not to be confused with virtual reality (VR), where a device is used experience an entirely original world with computer generated images. The most popular example of augmented reality is Pokémon Go, which superimposes images on to your surroundings with a phone, but augmented reality can also count as 3D holograms, and some QR codes, as long as it follows the definition. Compared to VR, AR is cheaper at the expense of an immersive experience, but virtual reality’s immersive experience will be exactly what holds it back from being used outside of the video game market, and for specific medical therapies. AR doesn’t limit the user as much as VR because the user can still see their actual surroundings, and the user doesn’t have to use wires and a high quality graphics processing unit to render millions of polygons on screen. Augmented reality is simply more practical than virtual reality.

 Augmented reality can be used for a large variety of purposes to boost the economy. The site eonreality.com suggests that with the lower attention spans today, education could be improved by transitioning from an auditory, lecture based learning style, to a more visual based learning style. (Wouldn’t you agree? School would be a lot more interesting if that was the case.) The site lifewire.com goes even further and suggests many other uses such as military pilots using AR to display necessary information, surgeons using AR to display an overlay, and information when doing a precise surgery to reduce risk of failure. There’s also more conventional uses for AR such as navigation, sightseeing, maintenance and repairs, gaming, and businesses would also benefit with AR advertisements. All of these applications of AR can increase production and efficiency for many different markets, providing certain services also would become a lot easier. The economy’s GDP would grow and the quality of life for most consumers would also improve as a result.
Augmented reality is a useful technology that is overlooked for its simplicity. This technology already works fairly well, and it’s been around for many years at this point. All that really needs to happen is to polish up the technology a little bit more, make sure it’s 100% reliable, and to spread the word. Augmented reality is a great technological step forward just waiting to happen.

Works Cited
Admin. “What Is Augmented Reality (AR)? Ultimate Guide to Augmented Reality (AR) Technology.” Reality Technologies, Reality Technologies, 4 Oct. 2018, www.realitytechnologies.com/augmented-reality/.

“Augmented Reality – The Past, The Present and The Future.” The Interaction Design Foundation, www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/augmented-reality-the-past-the-present-and-the-future.
“How AR and VR Change the Global Economics Conversation.” EON Reality, 12 Sept. 2018, www.eonreality.com/how-ar-and-vr-change-the-global-economics-conversation/.

Perdue, Tim. “All You Wanted to Know About Augmented Reality.” Lifewire, Lifewire, 2 Apr. 2019, www.lifewire.com/applications-of-augmented-reality-2495561.

Ronzio, Jonathan, and Brent Turner. “What Is the Difference Between AR and VR? A Lesson in Altered Realities.” Cramer, Cramer, 24 Feb. 2019, www.cramer.com/story/the-difference-between-ar-and-vr/.

The War on Drugs and Legalizing Pot

The War on Drugs and Legalizing Pot
Marissa Ziolkowski

If you closely followed the 2018 midterm election in Wisconsin, it will come as to no shock that 59% of voters, 70% of voters, 77% of voters respectively in Racine, Milwaukee, and Waukesha Counties said they would support the legalization of recreational marijuana in Wisconsin (“Wisconsin”). And, as someone myself who acknowledges that people are going to use marijuana recreationally regardless of the legality of it, I am left to wonder: if so many people support the legalization of pot in Wisconsin, why haven’t we done so yet? Ultimately, from an economic and social standpoint, the legalization of recreational marijuana just makes sense.


As seen by this graphic, public approval of legalizing recreational marijuana is not endemic to Wisconsin.

As previously mentioned, we have marijuana users in our state as we speak because, despite it being illegal in Wisconsin, people continue to use the drug. Seeing as it is a drug that is near impossible to overdose on and is not as dangerous as alcohol (Villa)--a drug we in Wisconsin near condone the over-serving of--marijuana should be a good we tax in Wisconsin. Our state (and hopefully, one day, our country) can take a good that is being used regularly by its citizens and make a profit off of it while introducing regulation on the drug to limit the lacing of marijuana with more harmful, addictive substances. By legalizing marijuana, small businesses related to dispensaries or pot paraphernalia can begin to thrive, and justice more easily served to those who sell tainted products. For example, in August of 2018, Colorado was ranked first when comparing states’ economies (“States”). This ranking came after Colorado’s legalization of pot in 2014--and while it is unfair to attribute their entire thriving economy on their marijuana sales, I would be remiss to say it didn’t help.

Additionally, the war on drugs has not been cheap for the American people. An estimate has put the federal government of the United States at $1 trillion spent on the incarceration of illegal drug possession or use since 1971. Not only would the legalization bring in money to our governments, with tax revenue raking in anywhere from $2.4 billion to $6 billion annually, depending on how it is taxed--but also, would save the federal government about $7.7 billion annually, as by legalizing pot, you reduce the number of people who are committing a crime (Edwards).  Taxpayers are paying for the incarceration of nonviolent “criminals” currently, which is quite honestly, a waste of money.

The legalization of marijuana would also improve the social health of our nation, as unfortunately, racism is present in our legal system. This is no question, as from the excess of police brutality shown towards minorities to the sentences received for the same exact crime between minorities and whites, the racism present in our system has been proved time and time again. “[D]espite accounting for only 12.5 percent of all substance users, black Americans make up nearly 30 percent of all drug-related arrests” (Pearl). Justice is not being fairly served, as marijuana arrests appear to be just another vehicle for delivering unjust sentences to minorities.

All in all, while change can be scary, it is the key to progression--as a nation and as an economy. Legalizing recreational marijuana is heavily supported in Wisconsin, and after seeing the benefits of the legalization, I believe it is time to listen to the people.

Works Cited
Edwards, Ezekiel, and Rebecca McCray. “Hundreds of Economists: Marijuana Prohibition Costs Billions, Legalization Would Earn Billions.” American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union, 9 July 2018, www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/sentencing-reform/hundreds-economists-marijuana-prohibition-costs-billions?redirect=blog%2Fmass-incarceration%2Fhundreds-economists-marijuana-prohibition-costs-billions-legalization-would.

Hartig, Hannah, and Abigail Geiger. “62% Of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 8 Oct. 2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/08/americans-support-marijuana-legalization/.

Pearl, Betsy. “Ending the War on Drugs: By the Numbers.” Center for American Progress, 27 June 2018, www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2018/06/27/452819/ending-war-drugs-numbers/.

“States with the Best and Worst Economies.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 27 Aug. 2018, www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/money/economy/2018/08/23/states-with-the-best-and-worst-economies/37490719/.

Villa, Lauren. “Marijuana vs Alcohol | Is Marijuana Safer Than Alcohol?” DrugAbuse.com, American Addiction Centers, 21 Dec. 2016, drugabuse.com/marijuana-vs-alcohol/.

“Wisconsin Election Results: Governor, Senate and Other Seats up for Grabs.” Wisconsin Election Results: 2018 Midterm Live Results | Journal Sentinel, Journal Sentinel Online, 7 Nov. 2018, projects.jsonline.com/topics/election/2018/11/6/november-2018-wisconsin-general-election-results.html.

Why Protectionism Is Toxic

Why Protectionism Is Toxic
Written By: Miriam John

The one rebuttal to this argument that I know everyone has is, “But we want to protect American jobs!” and I absolutely agree, but trading with other countries should not be equated to outsourcing. When you look at countries like England, which is an isolated island (resourcefully speaking) located towards the northern hemisphere, their entire economy and country would collapse if they tried to depend on themselves for produce, oil and other resources and goods their land cannot provide to the quantity that they need. In 2017, England earned about $395 billion in exports, but juxtaposed by the whopping $617 billion that they spent on imports you can clearly see they have a great trade imbalance. Yet, their unemployment rate as of 2018 was 4.2% which is around the natural rate of unemployment. Compare that to our export earnings of $1.25 trillion and import spending of $2.16 trillion, it’s easy to see that the trend is that well functioning, first world countries naturally import about double what they export (in dollars) considering our unemployment rate was at 4.0% as of June 2018. But limiting free trade and enticing trade wars can only destroy that.

In my opinion, the real reason protectionism has gotten so popular lately is not because it would actually strengthen our economy, but because of xenophobia. It’s easy to blame any of our economic problems on another country instead of making internal changes to our system because creating fear is easier than instilling hope. It’s easy to blame China, with whom we trade extremely often for goods that are far too expensive to make here, for the fact in 2017, our poverty rate was about 12.3%. That meant about 39.7 million Americans lived below the poverty line. Nothing about this statistic is good and I do believe we need to take measures to improve this situation, but putting higher tariffs on foreign goods that we depend on is not the answer.

Of course I realize there are downsides to excessive trading. Perhaps it is more humane to purchase products domestically if you are worried about sweatshop labor, but the reality is that we have laws in place to prohibit illegally made goods and/or products produced of child labor from being imported into our country to be sold. The only way that you would be supporting inhumane labor is if you yourself bought from the individual company/country that utilizes these methods. But the government will not currently stop you from buying cheap clothes from that online Chinese website because those goods are not being imported by the government in bulk. Another downside is that we may become too dependent on other countries, but there is always a happy medium. We obviously cannot rely on ourselves to produce certain goods at an effective price and quantity, but if we rely on other countries, we will be at their mercy if they decide to withhold those goods from us. But if we approach it as we are currently approaching oil, we can buy cheaper oil from the Middle East but build our oil reserves domestically and slowly work it into our economy so as not to overwhelm gas prices but to also be less dependent on the OPEC countries. But were we to raise tariffs on imported oil, prices in the U.S for gas would soar and we would not be able to afford OPEC oil but we would not have the resources to provide the entire country with oil. You can actually see in these pictures that we export a lot of the same things we import, which contributes to the trade balance in a positive way. Other countries are just as dependent for our cars as we are for their cars etc. thus we can make the products that are more efficient for us to make and we can buy similar products based on tastes and preferences that may not be as efficient for us to make.





All in all, extreme protectionism is truly bad for our economy and will actually reduce our GDP, if you consider recent news about the many factories in various industries that shut down/laid off workers because the price of steel is currently too high with the tariffs the Trump administration currently has in place. Ultimately, workers will pay the price for the costs that corporations have to shoulder and that will damage our economy more than restore it, thus we should shift our focus to more free trade and perfecting our trade balance to a healthier level.

Works Cited

Ikenson, Daniel J. “Protectionism and Trade Barriers Aren't Just Bad Economics – They're Also Immoral.” Cato Institute, 10 May 2018, www.cato.org/publications/commentary/protectionism-trade-barriers-arent-just-bad-economics-theyre-also-immoral.

Pensions, Department for Work and. “Employment Rate Remains at Record High.” GOV.UK, GOV.UK, 12 June 2018, www.gov.uk/government/news/employment-rate-remains-at-record-high.

Petersen, Thieß. “US Protectionism Is Bad for Everyone, Especially for America Itself.” Euractiv.com, EURACTIV.com, 14 Sept. 2017, www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/opinion/us-protectionism-is-bad-for-everyone-especially-for-america-itself/.

“United Kingdom.” OEC - United Kingdom (GBR) Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners, atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/gbr/.

“United States.” OEC - United States (USA) Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners, atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/usa/.

“United States Unemployment Rate.” United States Unemployment Rate | 2019 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast, tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate.

US Census Bureau. “Income and Poverty in the United States: 2017.” Income and Poverty in the United States: 2017, 16 Apr. 2019, www.census.gov/library/publications/2018/demo/p60-263.html.

The Potential of the AfCFTA

The Potential of the AfCFTA

Benjamin Bucheger

AP Econ A4

In March of 2018 the leaders from 44 African nations met in Kigali, Rwanda, committing to launching a common market for Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (or AfCFTA or CFTA for short) is not something that average American thinks about or maybe even knows about. But this agreement that would create the largest continental trade-bloc for goods and services in the world is arguably the biggest story in international economics to date. In order to stay informed let’s get into the finer details of what the CFTA is and what it plans to do.

The CFTA intends to bring together the markets of all 55 AU member states covering a population of 1.2 billion people with a collective GDP of $3.4 trillion. Further it seeks to boost intra-African trade through trade liberalization allowing the free movement of local businesses, investment and people. Better coordination between governments and businesses through this international economic forum will also resolve disputes that arise from membership in multiple smaller trade unions (such as the Economic Community of Central African States or the EC of West African States). The hope is these goals will enhance competitiveness, market interaction, and effectively deal with a century old problem caused by colonialism - impediment to trade and economic development due to an overemphasis on raw materials. Despite the potential of growth for the African economy there are still some points of disagreement amongst African nations mainly dealing with execution.

The goals will be accomplished through several measures. The CFTA consolidated text itself is split into two phases. The first (currently underway) deals with the trades in goods & services and dispute settlements. The second phase (to be concluded in 2020) will cover investment, intellectual property rights, and competition policy. The part I’m going to focus on - included in phase 1 - is the progressive reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development a Full Trade Agreement (that is, eliminating all tariffs) could generate welfare gains of $16.1 billion at the cost of $4.1 billion in tariff revenue loss. At the same time GDP and employment are projected to grow 0.97% and 1.17% respectively. Intra-African trade is estimated to grow by 33% and the trade deficit across the continent would decrease by 50.9%.

On the other hand if African nations instead go to a Special Product Categorization model (exempting sensitive products from trade liberalization) in order to appease nation-states with concerns towards a FTA, more on that later, welfare gain would decrease to $10.7 billion in the long term. Tariff revenue loss would also decrease to $3.2 billion. Meanwhile GDP and employment are expected to grow by 0.66% and 0.82% respectively. Intra-African trade would still grow, but only by 24% and the trade deficit would only decrease by 3.8%. Though the SPC option seems worse on the surface the draw to such a model for nations at odds with the CFTA, such as Nigeria or Burundi, is that it appears to address concerns over a lack of protection for local industry in a completely liberalized market. There is also concern that the agreement favors larger nations that already have a somewhat industrialized economy while leaving smaller nations behind without proper incentives to invest in them. However, nations who refuse to sign the CFTA are outliers and as of this month 52 nations have signed the agreement. The more contentious part of the agreement, which only 29 nations have signed, is the Free Movement Protocol.

As the name suggests, the protocol allows the free movement of people, right to live and establish businesses anywhere in Africa. Despite its less than ideal support the FMP is the backbone of the CFTA as free movement improves the interconnectivity between African businesses by lessening the cost of and time it takes to cross borders. The reason certain nations don’t support the protocol, such as Tanzania, is due to concerns over potential mass immigration to more wealthy nations with an inability to properly manage these immigrants. This mainly applies to fears over job loss of citizens due to overcrowding in the job market. Francis Mangeni, director for Trade, Customs, and Monetary Affairs for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, puts it best why these fears are unwarranted stating, “Many African states still believe in overblown myths that when they open up to other nationals, it will cause insecurity and jobs will be fewer for their citizens. But they have to look at countries that have successfully done it. Rwanda, Kenya, Seychelles and others opened up their borders and they have not collapsed,” In any case the signing of this protocol by all nations involved will be crucial to the success of the CFTA.

Wrapping up, the AfCFTA will undoubtedly take a lot of work to implement. Participating nations will have to implement minor and major economic reforms to be better responsive to a more liberalized trading system and economy while at the same time putting in place the infrastructure required to fully take advantage of the potential benefits of the CFTA. Furthermore trade agreements between African nations and nations outside of the African continent such as China and the US will have to be renegotiated with the greater African Union. So far 22 countries have ratified the agreement meeting the minimum requirement to bring it into full force. More who have signed are expected to ratify the agreement as phase 1 negotiations continue and more specifics are made available. As you watch the news be sure to keep an ear out for word on the AfCFTA, an agreement that will change the course of African economics for generations to come.

Map of whose signed the AFTCA in March, 2018: 

Works Cited

“Africa Continental Free Trade Area: Benefits, Costs and Implications.” Infomineo, 20 Apr. 2018, infomineo.com/africa-continental-free-trade-area/.

“Africa Wary of Free Movement as Single Market Opens.” The East African, 22 Mar. 2018, www.theeastafrican.co.ke/business/Africa-wary-of-free-movement-as-single-market-opens/2560-4352792-cv2rmfz/index.html.

“African Continental Free Trade Area: What Do We Expect in 2019.” Daily Monitor, 29 Apr. 2019, www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/African-Continental-Free-Trade-Area-What-expect-beyond/689364-5091612-adta3t/index.html.

“Kigali Declaration, 2003.” ACHPR, www.achpr.org/instruments/kigali/.
“THE AFRICA CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENT AND CROSS-BORDER DATA TRANSFER: MAXIMISING THE TRADE DEAL IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL ECONOMY.”

AANoIP, 20 Mar. 2019, aanoip.org/the-africa-continental-free-trade-agreement-and-cross-border-data-transfer-maximising-the-trade-deal-in-the-age-of-digital-economy/.

Avengers: Endgame Makes History?

Avengers: Endgame Makes History?
By: Braden Kozlik

You’d be lying if you hadn’t heard about the new Avengers: Endgame movie that the world has been blowing up about. After the previous film, Avengers: Infinity War, left the world speechless on a cliffhanger, fans are on the edge of their seats for the next and final highly anticipated film. Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here, but it’s safe to say that the franchise has come to a tremendous finish. Let’s look at the film’s impact on the worldwide economy in just 3 short days and what this could mean for the future of Hollywood productions.

To begin, box office sales were an absolute success, breaking all kinds of single-day, weekend, domestic and international gross records. The weekend gross totaled $350 million, $156.7 of which came from opening day alone. Disney later announced Sunday morning that the film pulled in an estimated $1.209 billion worldwide in its opening weekend, easily smashing the record of $640.5 million, set by none other than the Avengers: Infinity War set just last year. Yeah sure, those are pretty big numbers to think about, but to take it into perspective, Disney was able to make back everything they spent to make and market the movie. According to Deadline, with the two largest movie markets, the U.S. and China, analysts expected Avengers: Endgame “will near cash break even” between the two countries, as of Sunday. This highlights not only the national recognition the film has been getting, but the international attention as well.

The iconic franchise has been leaving box office films in the dust for nearly a decade, but let’s take a look of how the film matches up with the other highest-grossing domestic opening weekend films. To no one's surprise, Endgame secures the number 1 spot, in large part because in just 5 days, (including its international release) it became the fastest movie ever to reach $1 billion in GDP. It also became the fastest to gross $100, $200, and $300 million at the domestic box office, with the film taking 1, 2, and 3 days, respectively, to hit each number.

With Avatar holding the record of $2.8 billion in box office sales, the franchise has only one record left to beat. But as we begin to approach the end of Week 1 since the release, how will the film keep up? According to Variety magazine, “Endgame will need a multiple of at least 2.2 times its debut to surpass the haul of Avatar.” The biggest second-weekend ever belongs to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” with $149 million, marking a 39.8% decline in ticket sales, which adds yet another record to break. Ultimately, expect to maybe see a leftward shift in the aggregate demand curve because of a decrease in consumer spending as the Avenger’s hype begins to die down.

The numbers that Disney put up last weekend aren’t likely to be replicated any time soon. Considering the monstrous number of theaters Avengers: Endgame was released in throughout opening weekend, it's easy to see how it became possible for Endgame to break the records that it did to help the economy tremendously. But as we approach Week 2 since the film’s release, will the historic franchise continue to put up big numbers to pass Avatar’s record in box office sales or will they fall short?

Work Cited

D'Alessandro, Anthony, and Anthony D'Alessandro. “'Avengers: Endgame' Rests At $357M Opening Record; Eyes $33M Monday & Record $180M 2nd Frame; Weekend Biz Hits $401M High.” Deadline, 30 Apr. 2019, deadline.com/2019/04/avengers-endgame-opening-weekend-box-office-record-1202602445/.

Good, Owen S. “Avengers: Endgame Breaks Box Office Records with Massive $1.2 Billion Opening.” Polygon, Polygon, 28 Apr. 2019, www.polygon.com/2019/4/28/18521292/avengers-endgame-box-office-record-all-time-biggest.

Rubin, Rebecca, and Rebecca Rubin. “'Avengers: Endgame' Is Already a Box Office Juggernaut - How High Can It Climb?” Variety, 30 Apr. 2019, variety.com/2019/film/news/avengers-endgame-box-office-record-avatar-1203200349/.

Sobon, Nicole. “Avengers: Endgame Could Pass Avatar At Box Office.” CBR, CBR, 20 Apr. 2019, www.cbr.com/avengers-endgame-avatar-box-office/.

Climate Change’s Impact on the Economy

Climate Change’s Impact on the Economy
By Connor Neuman

Climate change has been a ongoing issue that seems to always be a headline in the news. However, over roughly the last 20 years, this issue has been becoming much more prominent. According to NASA, since the late 19th century, Earth’s average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit. Although some people may say that climate change is just a natural phenomenon that the Earth goes though, it is actually strongly driven by human activity and things are only going to get worse to not only our environment, but also the economy if we don’t do anything to stop it right now.

As I mentioned before, the Earth’s surface temperature has been steadily increasing over the course of history. It was just discovered that these temperatures are only getting hotter and hotter in recent years. According to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration analytics, “Earth's global surface temperature in 2018 was the fourth warmest since 1880” (NASA). Additionally, 5 of the hottest years on record have been since 2010. It is clear to see that temperatures has been rising and show no sign of slowing down. Why is this happening? The simple answer is just a dramatic increase in human activity. Enormous amounts of greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere, forcing the Earth’s temperature to rise. This severely impacts the economy in several ways. The biggest impact is mostly on the agriculture industry. Farmers won’t be able to grow crops with the extreme heat creating a food shortage for the entire nation. Not only will this will force us to heavily rely on imported food, but we also lose out on $133 billion worth of exports in this industry (CNN Money).

Due to these increasing temperatures, the Earth itself has been altered a number of different ways. One of the most impactful changes is the change in weather patterns. In the past 15 years the U.S. has experienced some of the most destructive hurricanes such as hurricane Michael, Katrina, and Harvey to name a few. Hurricane Harvey slammed Houston, Texas back in August, 2017 causing damage worth 125 billion dollars becoming the second most costly hurricane in U.S. history behind Katrina which happened in 2005. Unfortunately, NASA is predicting that these storms are only going to get worse. “Currently accepted climate models project that with a steady increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (1 percent per year), tropical ocean surface temperatures may rise by as much as 4.8 degrees Fahrenheit (2.7 degrees Celsius) by the end of the century. The study team concludes that if this were to happen, we could expect the frequency of extreme storms to increase by as much as 60 percent by that time” (NASA). This proves that it is crucial that something has to be implemented to prevent climate change because our government and economy simply can not handle these insane costs that hurricanes and natural disasters cause. Other areas in the economy that need funding will have to be stopped in order to repair the damages from the storms.

Another effect from the increasing temperatures is the melting ice caps in both the arctic and antarctic. Between 1993 and 2016, Greenland has lost an average of 281 billion tons of ice per year while Antarctica lost about 119 billion tons during the same time period. Additionally, the rate of Antarctica ice mass loss has tripled in the last decade. All of this melting ice is now causing ocean levels to rise which could possibly be the most significant effect of them all. According to GlobalChange.gov, “Global average sea level has risen by about 7–8 inches (about 16–21 cm) since 1900 , with about 3 of those inches (about 7 cm) occurring since 1993.” Although these number may not seem very impactful, we are already seeing problems occurring due to the rising water. Miami for example is already having a increase in flooding which has forced them raise the roads so they won’t get permanently flooded.  This not so simple task cost a grand total of $500 million. In addition to that, at the current rate of rising sea levels, the roads will have to be raised again in 30 years costing another $500 million. Now this is just the impact that rising sea levels has on Miami. Rising sea levels has endless amounts of affect across the world. In most cases, it is just flooding that coastal cities has to deal with, but eventually, the flooding will become such a big issue that it will become permanent.

In sum, it is clear to see that climate change is happening and that is it a problem that will not fade away on its own. It is man made so we are the only people that can solve it. If nothing is done soon in the future, efforts to prevent climate change will become much more difficult, or even near to impossible and our economy and environment will be in jeopardy.

Works Cited

“2018 Fourth Warmest Year in Continued Warming Trend, According to NASA, NOAA – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, NASA, 8 Feb. 2019, climate.nasa.gov/news/2841/2018-fourth-warmest-year-in-continued-warming-trend-according-to-nasa-noaa/.

“Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?” NASA, NASA, 5 Feb. 2019, climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.

Harris, Alex. “Keep Raising Roads, Experts Tell Miami Beach, but Explain It to Residents Better.” Miamiherald, Miami Herald, 19 Sept. 2018, www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article217984100.html.

“New List of the Costliest U.S. Hurricanes Includes 2017's Harvey, Irma, Maria.” The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel, weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2018-01-29-americas-costliest-hurricanes.

“USGCRP Indicator Details.” GlobalChange.gov, www.globalchange.gov/browse/indicators/global-sea-level-rise.

“Warming Seas May Increase Frequency of Extreme Storms – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, NASA, 28 Jan. 2019, climate.nasa.gov/news/2837/warming-seas-may-increase-frequency-of-extreme-storms/.

Yes. “These Are the Top US Exports.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, money.cnn.com/2018/03/07/news/economy/top-us-exports/index.html.