Carbon Neutral with that?
Lucy Siegle points out in today’s Observer that everything is going ‘carbon neutral’. Offset anything from your flight abroad to your Porsche and even your Mother’s Day flowers.
Welcome to the latest new money-spinning venture - and while we’re on the subject, damn it and why didn’t I think of getting into this sooner? – carbon offsetting.
The idea is really very simple. People want to be able to continue doing things exactly as they always have, still wish to be able to fly abroad, still wish to drive large cars five minutes to the supermarket - so why not offer to alleviate any pangs of guilt they might be experiencing by taking money from them and promising to remove their CO2 emissions? Brilliant. No work involved, bung a bit of money at the problem and away it goes.
Except it doesn’t work, at least for the most part. Siegle points out that only four companies conform to the Gold Standard for carbon credits:
Some carbon offsetting companies plant a tree for you somewhere in Wiltshire, and you have to assume that the tree grows to adulthood and eventually offsets all of the CO2 emissions you hoped it would. At the same time (and I speak from experience) they are quite likely to try and flog you a commemorative keyring, luggage tag and certificate – so before you know it, one short haul flight within Europe, and you have paid fifteen pounds for a bunch of tat and the promise of a carbon neutral holiday. All this, and the company has done nothing whatsoever to counteract pollution from businesses.
The companies listed above don’t even plant trees. They sponsor renewable energy initiatives in places from the UK to India and Brazil, and buy and retire credits from emissions trading programs, which in effect restricts the right of polluting companies to even pollute in the first place.
Quite Random is the blog of Nathan Nelson, a human male who lives in the UK and is not entirely sure what he's going to do when he grows up but is interested in international development, photography, secularism, technology, music and movies and other things anyone of his age would be.
