Can You Buy A Greener Conscience? (Global Warming Carbon Offset Indulgences Examined Alert)

Los Angeles Times ^ | 09/02/2007 | Alan Zarembo

[goldstategop]

For all the money spent, nobody can say if the offsets have done much to alleviate global warming....

Without government regulation and mandatory caps on emissions, all that is left to drive offset sales is guilt and marketing. Offset companies charge what the market will bear.

"How much are you willing to spend to feel good or to impress your neighbors?" asked Marland, of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

For Katy Hansen, a 29-year-old law school student, the answer was $429.99.

She wanted to offset the travel of the guests to her May wedding in Madison, Wis., and paid San Francisco-based offset company TerraPass Inc. to neutralize 40 tons of carbon dioxide.

"The wedding felt out of character in a way," she said. "It was more overdone than anything in our lives."

It was a well-intended gesture, but one that some scientists say does carry a price. Offsets are so convenient that they may foster a false sense that global warming can be easily solved when the hard and expensive work remains undone.

A United Nations panel recently concluded that actually reducing emissions to avoid the worst perils of global warming would cost trillions of dollars a year over the next several decades.

[goldstategop]

Liberals want you to believe buying carbon offsets will reduce global warming. Its a phony exercise - just as global warming is a hoax. Its the modern equivalent of the medieval indulgence. This lengthy Los Angeles Times investigation of the practice reveals that people who believe in nothing will believe in a feel good solution that doesn't even begin to address the problem they're concerned about, which is totally bogus to begin with since there is NO evidence human activities are a primary factor in climate change.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[3AngelaD]

...all that is left to drive offset sales is guilt and marketing... and stupidity.

[goldstategop]

Its just shuffling money around - which won't reduce C02 emissions one percentage point. There are useless mitigation schemes like this which will saddle the economy with enormous costs and which won't make our environment any cleaner.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[knarf]

Mr bridegroom ... you still have time to annul this tragedy of a woman.

Like a tattoo ... trust me on this .. the novelty will wear off in a VERY short time, and you will be stuck with something you never really wanted in the first place.

Bite the bullet, take your lumps ... but for your own sake ... get out! .... RUN !!!

[Uncle Hal]

I hope I live long enough for this whole carbon offset scam to be exposed as one giant Ponzi scheme with people going to jail.

[SouthTexas]

Typical liberal fix to a non-problem-throw money at it.

[goldstategop]

P.T Barnum would loved how people are willing to waste their money to feel better about themselves. Its all psychology.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[seowulf]

Offsets are a silly idea. Everyone knows that a liberal’s guilt can never be assuaged by their own money. They need your money to do it.

[goldstategop]

It has the potential to become a racket that makes the UN Food For Oil scheme look like a piker in comparison. Human gullibility, fear, greed and zeal are all factors at work in pushing forward with the global warming hoax. These folks are like the tele-evangelists they used to ridicule - and just as phony to boot.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[goldstategop]

Exactly! There is NO real problem. There are plenty of real problems and the money is being diverted to put liberal guilt at ease.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[goldstategop]

Ayuh. The next step is to tax every one since liberals can never feel better no matter how much they spend on themselves.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Drango]

Its a phony exercise...

NOT TRUE.

I have some carbon offsets that work better than all the others and for my FReeper friends, today only, they are 1/2 price. These are extra special offsets. No checks. Order today. Please FReepmail me your account number and pin.

[knarf]

"I hope I live long enough for this whole carbon offset scam to be exposed as one giant Ponzi scheme with people going to jail."

Like Social Security, Unc ?

I'm turning blue from holding my breath on THAT one ... My friends call me Papa Smurf.

[missnry]

[goldstategop]

The people who call upon the rest of us to give up our SUVs and affordable energy are the same people who won't give up their gas-guzzling private jets and energy sucking mansions. Hypocrites!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[missnry]

One day this Global Warming scam will be in the museum of hoaxes and displace the Cardiff Giant as one of the greatest hoaxes of all time.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Cardiff_Giant/

[alloysteel]

These “global warming carbon offsets” might as well be pet rocks. or Cabbage Patch (tm) dolls, for the difference they will make to either the climate, or the total amount of energy that will be consumed by a world that has rapid industrialization going on in many and varied localities. The US, and most of the European countries, and probably a couple of Asian countries, have the available resources and technological capabilities to effectively make most manufacturing and commercial enterprises “carbon neutral”, even to some degree the non-commercial aspects of life in these countries. But what difference will that make in Mumbai? Or the Ural Mountains? or Shanghai? Absolutely none, as it turns out.

If excess CO2 is going to be absorbed from the atmosphere and sequestered, the cultivation of rapidly growing plants and making the industrial products from these plants an economically feasible market product, will do vastly more than “carbon credits”. These “carbon credits” are a scam.

[RedMonqey]

Offsets are a silly idea. Everyone knows that a liberal?s guilt can never be assuaged by their own money. They need your money to do it.

HaHaHa . Very True.

[NormsRevenge]

I wish I had a lawn left to mow, I’d run my old smokin’ mower over it twice a day... and then buy an offset to feeeeel better about doing it.

[goldstategop]

Yep... what the Left isn't telling people is that truly reducing global warming would require massive tax increases, reduced economic output, lower standard of living and giving up modern conveniences. That's their real agenda but if they were honest about it, global warming would be about as popular as a wet blanket and they know it.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus