Carbon Offsets: The Real "Risky Scheme"

Various | 3/21/07 | Reaganesque

[Reaganesque]

All the media coverage of how we can live a green life, got me to thinking. According to the USDA:"Planting trees remains one of the cheapest, most effective means of drawing excess CO2 from the atmosphere." Such a claim deserves some investigation. This is what I found.

According to British Airways, a single round-trip flight of a 747-400D between London and NY puts 1.26 metric tons of CO2 per passenger into the atmosphere. This is 1260 kg/person.

Again, according to the USDA, The average tree can take an average of 5.9 kg of CO2 out of the atmosphere per year. An acre of trees can, on average, take 2,358.7 kg of CO2 out of the atmosphere per year. That’s about 400 trees per acre.

Individually, it would take a single tree 213.6 years to clean up after you. It would take an acre of trees a little over half a year. Or, you could plant 214 trees to remove the CO2 over a period of one year. British Airways (through a company called Climate Care) allows you to purchase your carbon offset for a mere $17.05. A round-trip flight from Heathrow to JFK, for the summer months, (May – Sept.) is $646. This amounts to a voluntary 2.6% tax.

Assuming 500 passengers on the 747-400D (it can hold up to 568); that means the airplane puts 630 metric tons or 630,000 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere per round-trip flight (a flight of 3,471 miles). In order to offset this, it would take one tree 106,779.66 years to offset the CO2 produced by that flight. It would take an acre of trees 267.1 years or, it would require the planting of 267 acres of trees or 106,780 individual trees in one year. Assuming a cost of $5 per tree (taken from a nursery website and other Global Warming sites), such a planting would cost $533,900. Your personal share of this cost: $1,070. So, the $17.50 fee from Climate Care isn’t bad but, where is Climate Care making up the difference?

Climate Care does not solely invest in planting trees. Nor do other firms that offer carbon credits. In addition to planting trees, Climate Care invests in technologies such as: human energy (think hand and foot cranked machines), bioenergy, wind energy, energy efficient light bulbs, efficient (alternative energy) stoves. See their website for further background. (Please note the graphic with little brown people happily living a European’s idea of a green lifestyle.) Question: since planting trees is only a portion of that $17.50, how much carbon could you really being taking out of the atmosphere? Indeed, how much good could any of these carbon offset companies do? On top of that, these companies are free of any government regulation. They can make any claims they want to.

In the 2000 election, Al Gore, now co-founder and Chairman of the Board of one of these carbon offset companies, called George W. Bush’s plan for Social Security as a “risky scheme.” It would seem that the Inventor of the Internet has found a risky (and apparently useless) scheme of his own.

[Reaganesque]

Wondering about your car? I have a 1996 Chrysler Concorde. According to TerraPass.com, based on assumed mileage of 12,000 miles/yr, my car emits 4,632.1 kg of CO2. One tree could absorb that CO2 in 785.1 years. An acre of trees could absorb it in 1.98 years. Or, I could plant 785 trees, at a cost of $3,925, to make my car “carbon neutral” for the year. Let me write a check.

I encourage all to do their own research on this. I could be way off. Who knows? But even if I am off in my calculations, the fact remains that carbon offset companies constitute an unregulated commodities market in which any and all claims, however dubious the science they are based on, can be made with little to no consequence. A risky scheme indeed.

[sgtbono2002]

This whole Carbon Credit scam is a phony .

Again :its selling something that doesnt exist.

Its a rip-off from stem to stern,and who is right in the middle of it? Right, Al Gore.

[Puppage]

the fact remains that carbon offset companies constitute....

...A LOAD OF CRAP!

So, rich liberals can live as they currently do, all they want as long as they pay "offsets".

Basically, pay to have someone ELSE tighten their enviro-belt while they waltz along without any change in lifestyle al the while telling US what WE need to do.

[Hegemony Cricket]

"HE PLAYED ON OUR FEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Restore]

Or, I could plant 785 trees, at a cost of $3,925, to...

Done and done.

Send me a check.

[Reaganesque]

It's in the mail. ;-)

[Wolfie]

Again :its selling something that doesnt exist.

That's fine. If idiots want to waste their money, no sweat off my back. But you can bet your paycheck that monied interests are even now working on Congress to pass legislation REQUIRING the purchase of carbon offsets, probably in the form of a tax.

[The Great RJ]

These "Carbon Credit" deals are nothing short of consumer fraud. If Congress is so bent on saving the American people from nasty big business why don't they investigate these companies?

I am waiting for the Nigerian e-mailers and Internet spammers to cash in on this scam.

[RC2]

I totally agree. Global warming cannot be proved or disproved. That is one of the main problems. But....guys like Al Gore are playing on peoples emotions and will, most likely, make a fortune from it all. Carbon Credits? Yeah right..........Gore owns a company that he is attempting to get people to invest in.....regarding "Carbon Credits".

This planet of ours warms and cools over thousands of years. This is good and bad for humans........just the way it is. Seems to me....but I could be wrong.....that humanity has adjusted pretty well over the years. People like Gore are playing on "The sky is falling" theory and peoples fears.

[Sender]

These carbon credits are planned to be one of the largest commodity markets in the world, if we allow it to happen. All companies will be forced to pay the carbon barons a clean air tax, and companies who need to continue polluting will just pay a higher tax and go right on with their business. The carbon costs will be passed along to us, the consumers.

The ironic thing is that third world polluters in China and India will not be subject to the tax, and will drive up our trade imbalance even higher. More production will be outsourced, if that is possible, to countries who don't care a rat's ass about carbon credits. And Gore will get richer as he uses 20 times the average home's energy.

[afnamvet]

Gore, the loser in politics, latched on to the Global Warming carny show in an effort to regain cred with his fellow lib nutjobs. All this global warming crap is an attempt to suck dollars out of all our wallets.

[Puppage]

Global warming cannot be proved or disproved

It's a fact that the Earth has been warming since the last ice age. What CAN'T be proven is that Man is the cause. That's the big debate here, IMHO.

[Puppage]

If Congress is so bent on saving the American people from nasty big business why don't they investigate these companies?

Because it just feeeeeeels good.

[posterchild]

And it's a temporary store - when those trees die, the carbon is released.

I figure that the 'extra carbon' will find it's own way into plant life and doesn't need a carbon broker to manage it.

[Dave Olson]

The average tree can take an average of 5.9 kg of CO2 out of the atmosphere per year.

And once the tree dies, it releases all that carbon back into the environment anyway.

[RC2]

I don't believe you'll ever prove it one way or another. Some of these people have said that 650,000 years ago, the earth didn't have this problem. That may be true because there was no one here then. Maybe the world is getting over populated????? Who knows, but it all revolves around money today.....I doubt that people like Gore really care about it as long as he's making money at disrupting the American people.

[Puppage]

I doubt that people like Gore really care about it as long as he's making money at disrupting the American people

You got that right

[rock_lobsta]

Okay, I bit on this... it seems they want to take 80 bucks a year so I can exude a cloud of smug to all my friends...

---

Personal emissions report

Your car emits 17,255 lbs of CO2 per year.

You should get a Road Tripper TerraPass.

A Road Tripper TerraPass offsets 20,000 lbs of CO2,
enough to balance one year of your driving.

Vehicle:

2002 Chevrolet C1500 Silverado 2WD automatic transmission

 

Mileage:

15 mpg (city), 19 mpg (highway)

 

Distance:

15,000 miles per year

 

Fuel use:

882 gallons per year

 

Emissions:

17,255 lbs CO2 per year

 

Road Tripper TerraPass

20,000 lbs CO2 offset

$79.95 for 1 year

only $0.22 per day!
includes tax & shipping

 

---

17,355 pounds of CO2 per year... and DAMN PROUD OF IT!!!
I'll shoot for 20K next year!

[Red Boots]

One factor that their calculations do not consider is that the carbon sequestered by trees, or any living thing, goes right back into the atmsophere when they die.

What difference can it possibly make to the long term C02 problem ? If they really cared that their offsets worked, they'd have to be burying carbon in geologically long term sequestration, like injecting it into subduction zones or something.

It's just another clue that the actual usefulness of carbon offsetting is not the prime consideration. It's all about feeling good about oneself.

[Reaganesque]

Ping.