This implies gasoline costs society $30 per gallon. Here's the math. Each gallon of gasoline in the USA costs roughly $4. Burning the gallon of gasoline creat

This implies gasoline costs society $30 per gallon. Here's the math. Each gallon of gasoline in the USA costs roughly $4. Burning the gallon of gasoline creates roughly 10kg of carbon dioxide. 1 ton of emissions therefore equates to roughly 100 gallons of gas. (100 x 10 kg = 1000 kg = 1 ton) So, in the USA you paid $400 for those 100 gallons. But the social impact of those emissions is $3,000. If taxed properly, this implies gas would be $30/gallon. Think about that next time you drive, fly...and figure out how to build better solutions. When you buy gas you're getting it for a steal, paying $4 for something that costs the world $30. It's hard to resist! We need to be carbon neutral yesterday, and also remove carbon dioxide from the air that's already there. (If of interest, for more background on this, check out Michael Greenstone's work at the University of Chicago on the "social cost of carbon".)