Posted on 04/15/2007 9:08:18 AM PDT by SmithL
When Cal Broomhead drove to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone last summer on vacation, he felt pretty bad about the carbon dioxide emissions from his Volvo station wagon.
[[Podcast: How Earth Day became the "most popular secular holiday"]]
So he paid $100 to a company that then subsidized a wind energy project that generates electricity without producing greenhouses gases. Broomhead was told his contribution made up for a year of driving about 12,000 miles as well as his household's annual use of electricity and natural gas.
In the new vernacular, Broomhead and his family were "carbon neutral."
"It makes me feel good. It means I'm walking my talk," he said.
A new green fever is sweeping the nation, much of it fueled by worry over global warming. Broomhead and tens of thousands of others are using Internet calculators to determine their "carbon footprint" and then paying to "offset" that damage.
Still to be determined is whether carbon offsets are the new commodity that will truly help the environment -- or merely salve the consciences of people who don't want to give up the luxury of big cars, jet travel, overheated homes, blazing lights and gluttonous appliances.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I’m not sure why, but “Indulgences” keeps popping into my mind.
You mean the abuse of indulgences.
Exactly. You beat me to the punchline. What we need is a Martin Luther to step forward and explain that their are no ‘get out of jail’ free cards.
Have you EVER seen such nonsense?
Liberal guilt. The whip the leftists use to tame their followers.
Broomhead? More like di*khead.
Dude, you paid carbon offsets at the pump already for the additives and when you bought your car with federally mandated equipment that cut emissions. How far is too far? Loser.
--I'd have to have been impressed if they had biked to Peru--
I say we take advantage of their guilt and assemble “Conservatives For Conservation”.
CFC would then use donated funds to produce public service announcements that disprove the man-made global warming nonsense, while promoting good stewardship and common sense ways to save money on energy.
We could actually use THEIR money to pay for spots that work against them!
I like it.
Since all these people are buying “Carbon Credits”, who is benefiting from all this money? Sounds to me like it’s just a place to put money to make them feel good about themselves. Money isn’t the answer to everything.
Cal Deadhead.
They still need to explain how moving money from person A to person B does anything other than merely redistribute wealth.
My son, say twelve “Hail Marys” and six “Our Fathers.”
That sounds like a great plan! You can be the president of CFC. I want to be the treasurer.
Here's an idea: "Ethnic Offsets"
Everytime somebody uses "nappy headed" or "ho's" in a sentence, they need to buy an offset from you. In this way anybody could erase a history of anti-semitic living with a few dollars.
What a doofus!
If conservatives talked a little bit more reasonable like this sentence, they might not be losing the argument so badly. There seems to be far too many on the right stopping at the first line when Americans really would like to stop financing both sides of the WOT.
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