The article below - from Fortune Magazine - shows one example of where carbon offset money goes - and how it's difficult to know if you're really helping the earth with money paid for this. Much better to "save the earth" where you live - buy local produce, recycle, and of course, drive a Prius. The other side of carbon trading Planting trees in Mount Elgon National Park in eastern Uganda seemed like a project that would benefit everyone. The Face Foundation, a nonprofit group established by Dutch power companies, would receive carbon credits for reforesting the park's perimeter. It would then sell the credits to airline passengers wanting to offset their emissions, reinvesting the revenues in further tree planting. The air would be cleaner, travelers would feel less guilty and Ugandans would get a larger park. But to the farmers who once lived just inside the park, the project has been anything but a boon. They have been fighting to get their land back since being evicted in the early 1990s and have pressed their case with lawsuits. Last year, when the courts granted three border communities an injunction against the evictions, the farmers took it as permission to clear the land they consider theirs. Now a stubble of stumps all that's left of the trees meant to absorb carbon dioxide dots the rows of newly planted maize and budding green beans. More at the link below: http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/27/news/inter...sion=2007082911
A clear conscience cannot be "bought". It only comes with difficult changes to the way you live. It's the new religion. Instead of laying gold at the altar of zues to cleanse yourself of past wrongdoings, you are laying gold at the altar of someone else, who has guilted you to do so. Instead of buying carbon offsets, people should invest that money in things like insulation, solar panels, replacing lush lawns in the desert with landscaping tolerant to drought, more economical vehcles or better yet mass transit, and etc. etc.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Aug 29 2007, 01:00 PM) [snapback]503890[/snapback]</div> Indeed. Though some people are doing this for business travel. It seems spurious to me and I'd rather do the types of things you suggest.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Aug 29 2007, 12:00 PM) [snapback]503890[/snapback]</div> Unfortunately, it can. It's simply a matter of what you can fool yourself into believing. Isn't that part of what motivates church donations?
"laying gold at the altar of zues" I was trying to be more subtle! Any conscience clearing is temporary, for these people. I come from Catholicism and guilt is rampant. It is the main tool of child rearing for the real staunch catholic women. Sit back in guilt and flog yourself....or actively try to be a better person.
??? As a method of easing guilt? As opposed to addressing the actual cause of the guilt? Or in a sexual nature?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Aug 31 2007, 11:16 AM) [snapback]504988[/snapback]</div> Why not all 3?
