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 If you pay a monthly gas-and-electric bill of US$2,400, could you claim to be environmentally conscious? That is precisely what records show Al Gore is paying for his 20-room mansion and related outbuildings. That includes $500 a month for his pool-house. Gore claimed that he bought "carbon offsets" to make up for his $30K annual energy tab. Where did he buy offsets? From Generation Investment Management (GIM), a firm which lists Gore as Chairman.
Wanton profiteering appears to be at the very heart of "carbon offsets." Put simply, a wide range of respected scientists, researchers, agriculturalists, and activists believe that carbon offsets are a "scam", "fantasy", "fiction", "nonsense", "fraudulent" and worse.
Al Gore's GIM works "with two offset providers (The Chicago Climate Exchange and the Carbon Neutral Company) to ensure our London and Washington D.C. offices are fully carbon neutral."
Deforestation Watch notes that Carbon Neutral - once called Future Forests offer carbon offseting "which is really a thinly disguised scam."
In June of 2000, the World Rainforest Movement Bulletin noted that the UN's Climate Panel had tacitly approved a "carbon market" that would generate profits for certain companies while allowing carbon emissions to continue unabated.
The panel, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- issued a Special Report on Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF). In May of 2000, the report claimed that an accounting system for trading trees or soil for industrial emissions was feasible. Among the authors of the report were numerous parties that would benefit directly from such an accounting system.
The following "carbon equations", for instance, which represent the current market approach in microcosm, are cited in recent promotional material by the British tree-planting firm Future Forests, now called Carbon Neutral: - * 7 trees = 5 London-New York single air tickets* 5 trees = 1 year's driving of an ordinary car
- * 2 trees = 4 pots of tea a day for 6 years
- * 40 trees = 1 average home's CO2 emissions over 5 years
- These calculations are part of Future Forests' invitation to individuals and corporations to become "carbon-neutral". It doesn't matter how much fossil fuel you use, or what you use it for. Simply write out a cheque and the carbon professionals will punch numbers into their computers representing your carbon-dioxide emissions, plant the requisite number of trees, and watch over them for you.
- * Thus, to offset a flight, the carbon-offset accounting geniuses have arrived at prices of $60, $85, $180, $195 or a maximum discrepancy ratio of 3.25 to 1.
What an ingenuous money making scheme! The sad part is that the very same environmentalists who are spouting such inane carbon offset schemes are the very same ones who are accusing palm oil of releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.
If carbon neutrality is an issue, Deforestation Watch is compelled to ask, just where does palm oil fit into the overall scheme of things? The irony is that palm oil should really be the poster boy for carbon neutrality! After all, the palm oil tree is cultivated in neat plantations and would be an efficient contributor to the sequestration of CO2. The oil palm tree is virtually a perennial crop with a productive lifespan of up to 25 years. Palm plantations are also renowned for using sustainable planting practices ranging from soil erosion mitigation schemes to effluent control to using environmentally friendly pest control mechanisms.
In the view of Deforestation Watch, if the environmentalists and carbon offset corporations are truly sincere in promoting carbon neutrality, perhaps they should consider adopting palm oil plantations. That would save them the bother of having to go through the song and dance routine of tree planting and sly carbon offset pricing! THE END. |
