Shock: "Carbon Offsets" A Shabby Fraud

Oscar bags contained 10,000 pounds worth of supposed carbon offsets.

From where is this carbon being offset?

Well, for a real offset, you'd have to pay someone to do something he otherwise would not do (such as fill a lot of his land with trees he otherwise would not have planted), or pay someone not to do something they otherwise would have done (such as not fly on chartered private jets).

But it seems these supposed "offsets" are coming from people doing things they were already doing -- for example, TerraPass is selling "reduced methane" emissions in its garbage dumps, despite the fact they were already reducing methane before the sale of "carbon offsets."

Thus, you're not paying somoeone to generate less "greenhouse gases." You're paying someone to continue generating the same levels of greenhouse gases they were before you paid them.

It's absurd, but what Al Gore and his Hollywood nitwits are doing, basically, is paying me not to fly on private Gulfstream jets. Well, see, I already wasn't flying on them. Paying me not to fly on them does pad my pocket a bit, but it doesn't reduce carbon dioxide emissions, because I already wasn't flying on them.

Carbon offsets are not carbon offsets at all. They're hypocrisy offsets at best.

And, of course, they're really just indulgences for the Church of Gaia.

Thanks to Larwyn.

posted by Ace at 09:11 PM

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