A Dubious Way Out Of CO2 Emissions

Chemical & Engineering News (membership required for online access) | 2/19/07 | Bette Hileman

[Winged Hussar]

In the late Middle Ages, professional pardoners sold indulgences to Roman Catholic parishioners with the promise that their sins would be forgiven. It was one of the practices that led to the success of Martin Luther's Reformation.

Today, some environmentally conscious people purchase so-called carbon offsets to compensate for the CO2 emissions they are personally responsible for. ...At least 50 companies sell offsets for air travel for between $5 and $30 per ton of CO2. Some of them sell offsets for other activities as well.

[Winged Hussar]

Ms. Hileman is PRO-greenhouse gas reduction, and even she has trouble with these "carbon offsets" that are being sold by Carbonfund.org and, by implication, Environmental Defense (http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/), which links the Carbon Fund. Our position is that these "carbon offsets" are a racket that, although legal and even tax-deductible, are about as reputable as selling people indulgences for their sins.

Things get more interesting when one notes the connection of Carbonfund.org to Groundspring.org, which is in turn associated with the Tides Foundation: part of George Soros' network of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), also known as the Soros-Occupied Government (SOG).

http://www.fightglobalwarming.com is running radio ads even on the Laura Ingraham Show, and we have to wonder whose money is behind them. The site is sponsored by the Ad Council and the Robertson Foundation as well as Environmental Defense. Cui bono? (Who benefits?)

http://www.capitalresearch.org/blog/default.asp?archiveID=605

"Organizations like Environmental Defense have teamed up with corn growers and other special interests to save the world. ... The next time you get the warm-n-fuzzies as you drive out of your way to a station that allows you to fill your car with E85-ready gas, think about the fact that you’re helping strip the world of its trees, that you’re contributing to the plight of the poor in Mexico, that you’re supporting anticompetitive agriculture subsidies that are hurting the world’s poor generally, and that this ethanol fixation has a miniscule effect on climate abatement."

Yes, it looks like this "Environmental Defense" outfit is in bed with corn alcohol producers. Rising corn (that's "maize" to Britons) prices are already driving up food prices for poor people. We must expose this "greenhouse gas" scam for exactly what it is, a special interest SCAM that benefits all kinds of special interests while harming consumers and working people.

[kinoxi]

The market for carbon is just as wide and more corrupt than you could realistically describe..

[Man50D]

Maybe I'm missing something because I'm dense but where is the link to the article? Is the article only two paragraphs? Is the information in your post #1 the rest of the rest of the article?

[Winged Hussar]

http://pubs.acs.org/isubscribe/journals/cen/85/i08/html/8508gov2.html but you have to be an ACS member to access it. Obviously, I can't post the whole article or even a large part of it for copyright reasons.

[Man50D]

OK, thanks. BTW what is a carbon offset? It sounds like an environmentalist feel good gimmick.

[Publius6961]

here you go...

Get Your Carbon Offsets!

[Always Right]

I need to get in this business of selling carbon offsets! Give me your money and the tell your friends you are not a net carbon producer.

[kinoxi]

It's occurring.

[Man50D]

I suddenly became an expert. Everyone send in your money to me to avoid inflicting pollution on the earth and shame on your family for many generations.

[GregoryFul]

You know the con artists know where the fools are.

[timer]

Ever heard of the Pantone Catalytic Converter, only pure oxygen comes out of the tail pipe? Yes, it WORKS, I've seen it demonstrated. You might want to check it out.

[kinoxi]

I agree with your statement.

[SCHROLL]

Carbon offsets-the left's newest way to tell you how to live while going about doing the opposite because, by gosh, they're just too important to have to deal with it.

[Winged Hussar]

For every $1000 people send me, I promise to not build a fossil fuel-fired power plant. For a million dollars, I won't build 1000 coal-fired plants and I won't raise 1000 hogs.

[Shermy]

BTW what is a carbon offset?

When thinking of carbon offsets, aka, carbon credit trading or cap and trade, the following terms should come to mind as as aid to understanding:

United Nations Oil For Food Scandal, Maurice Strong, Enron, California Electricity Trading Scandal, Junk Bonds, Milken, Drexel Burnham Lambert, BCCI, any of the numerous stock broker scams, Savings $ Loan Scandal, dot.com bubble, Tsarist Railroad Bonds, Irish Sweepstakes, 1920's Florida Swampland sales,...and those pathetic people at sidewalk table-stands trying to break even into the multi-level marketing scams they fell into.

Hey, that's an idea, let's sell carbon credits on the sidewalk, the only way us little people can get in on the bubble before it bursts!

[ckilmer]

The carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired electrical generation plants will be turned into oxygen by green houses full of algae that convert algae to biodiesal and in many instances convert salt water to fresh water.

[calcowgirl]

Good list, Shermy. My only addition at this point is Executive Life.

[Winged Hussar]

If they can really do it and make it cost-effective (i.e. biodiesel sells at or below the current diesel fuel price), I'm all for it. Just so the government and Al Gore's people don't impose mandates to force us to buy it if it's not cost-competitive.

I have NO problem with "green" technology that REDUCES energy costs--in fact, lower emissions of carbon dioxide are a side benefit of such improvements, which also make energy cheaper. The problem is the Climate Action Partnership, which apparently wants the government to force people to buy its products and services whether they are cost-effective or not. (aka Corporate Welfare at our expense)

[Tzimisce]

Someone has been reading my blogs.

[I got the rope]

ROTFLMAO! Do you know how many millions of metric tons of CO2 come out of just one coal-fired boiler? You would have to build algae bath the size of New Jersey to do this.