Nowadays, air pollution has become a serious problem that concerns us with its damage to not only the environment, but also our physical well-being. Although some people propose to raise the cost of fuel as a solution to this issue, I personally believe that it is not the best way to solve the problem of air pollution.

Indeed, increasing the enforcement of penalty can reduce the damage to the environment to some extent. Considering the higher costs in handing in fines to the law enforcement departments, these companies might figure out ways to reduce the amount of pollution. As a result, the reduced pollution to a decrease in the toxic chemicals and wasted gases in the environment. However, this solution does not solve the problem completely. Even the price goes up, most companies would still make a fortune. Such necessity is not able to be replaced, and pollution would continue to be a problem. For example, many factories in south Beijing has emitted numerous pollutants to the nearby river. Although the local government has posed more taxation on them, what they may choose to do is to produce more products to balance the loss in taxes, making the pollution even worse.

Exploiting new energy sources, on the other hand, is a better alternative to reduce pollution because it is a stable solution that will solve the problem eternally. Cars that are powered by solar energy, for example, cause no harm to our environment, since it uses a long-lasting and powerful battery to absorb and store the energy from the sunlight and then use this energy to power the cars. According to research conducted by scientists in Japan and China, the solar energy cars do not produce any greenhouse gases such as the carbon dioxide and the sulful dioxide, or toxic materials that polluted the air. Based on this, cars driven by solar energy would reduce the emission of waste gas to the environment.

Moreover, shutting down the factories that produced air pollution is another more effective way to reduce the toxics in the environment. In fact, most of the air pollution comes from the disqualified factories, not from the wasted gases from the cars. After the city government of Beijing shut down hundreds factories around the city in 2008, the air quality of Beijing increased by 40%. The blue sky above the skyscrapers appeared for more than a month, s sight that has never been seen for the past ten years. In such case, regulating the factories that produced air pollution effectively improved the quality air.

All in all, I believe taking harsh penalty for companies is not the best way to reduce the air pollution, since there are better alternatives such as shutting down the factories and applying new energy sources to people’s lives.