New standards for carbon offsetting were launched today in a bid to reassure environmentally-conscious consumers in their attempts cut carbon emissions.
But is it worth it? Joe Otten thinks so. If you can clean up after clean up after yourself, what is the problem? he asks. The Independent reports that it can transform lives around the world and the Lazy Environmentalist says it offers "remarkably cheap" way to environmental salvation.
But there seems to be a growing consensus that paying environmental guilt money is a swizz. Andy Rowell on Price of Oil thinks so. Tom Robbins, writing in the Observer isn't convinced either.
The reason? According to Friends of the Earth, even if the schemes are genuine the idea is flawed, because it suggests we can buy are way out of trouble rather than cutting emissions in the first place. What do you think? Do you offset?
1 comment:
While I see no problem in principle with offsetting, I am skeptical of the practicalities. The problem is that the value of an offset depends on what would have happened if you hadn't bought it, and that is very difficult to demonstrate.
And I think political action has the potential to achieve far more than offsetting - which is effectively a kind of charitable giving.
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