With a myriad of different policies around the environment on all levels including the national, state, and even in the city of San Diego itself, there are examples from other regions that we can implement in our current system. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and Carbon Fee and Dividend Policy put caps on the carbon emissions on the power sector. Likewise, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act manage the amount of hazardous pollutants in U.S. air and water, whereas, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires companies to take into account the environmental impact of their actions. Even the President’s Climate Action Plan has strategies to tackle the issues related to the effects of climate change.

While the United States is the world’s most economically prosperous nation by a large margin in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), it may not be the most resilient economy.  Although GDP is crucial for evaluating economic growth, policy makers and planners must also consider the health of their populace.  Therefore, the United Nations created a new index called the Human Development Index (HDI) that factors in life expectancy, education, and income.  Under these criteria, the US ranked only 5^th in the world, which should spark a discussion into whether the US really is as economically resilient as we all assume.