| As global warming finally seeps into the | | | | individual carbon loads into the atmosphere, |
| public consciousness, carbon offsets are fast | | | | the atmosphere is still going to contain that |
| becoming the next hot new thing (no pun | | | | carbon. Tree-planting offsets may absorb some |
| intended). People love them because they let | | | | of that carbon eventually (those trees will |
| you buy your way out of your carbon impacts. | | | | take time to mature to full carbon absorption |
| Write a check and erase your guilt. And I've | | | | capacity ). |
| always been a little troubled by this and by | | | | |
| the whole idea of carbon offsets themselves. | | | | Building renewable energy generation may |
| | | | help, but with overall energy demand |
| For one thing, you can't always trust all the | | | | continually rising, they may not offset the |
| offset providers that are suddenly popping up | | | | impacts of traditional energy supplies so |
| all over the place. Some are likely to be | | | | much as they merely supplement those supplies |
| scams. Others offer no real measurements of | | | | with cleaner sources of power. |
| the carbon they prevent. Others are just | | | | |
| taking your money for projects that would | | | | I guess I hope we come to see carbon offsets |
| have happened anyway. There need to be some | | | | as a stop-gap solution and not as a permanent |
| standards on both sides of the equation, i.e. | | | | answer that licenses us to keep on keeping on |
| how much carbon the consumer actually needs | | | | albeit without any guilt or responsibility |
| to offset for each activity they engage in | | | | for our own behaviors. It really feels to me |
| and how much carbon each provided offset | | | | like they're a temporary strategy to reduce |
| actually offsets. Apparently, Britain is | | | | some of our impacts and help finance a |
| going to create and apply some of these | | | | bigger, more impactful renewable energy |
| standards soon. We probably need something | | | | infrastructure, a voluntary carbon tax of |
| like that to happen in the U.S. | | | | sorts, rather than a solution. The only real |
| | | | answer to climate change that I see is to |
| A lot of questions remain about carbon | | | | make changes in how we use energy so that we |
| offsets but meanwhile the world seems to be | | | | use less of it at all times, regardless of |
| rushing to embrace them. I worry that people | | | | whether or not we're offsetting, and to |
| will think they can use offsets to simply buy | | | | develop and widely disseminate those |
| their way out of the problem rather than | | | | technologies that permit us to make these |
| actually solve it. You know, we can purchase | | | | changes without the kinds of sacrifices that |
| all the carbon offsets in the world, but if | | | | turn people off by recalling a Paleolithic |
| in doing so we think that gives us carte | | | | lifestyle. |
| blanche to continue to spill our own | | | | |