Save The Planet, Lose The Guilt

Newsweek ^ | June 30, 2008 | Jesse Ellison

[PROCON]

Just because we all sin against the environment doesn't mean we should believe every "green" idea To get a sense of how well-intentioned people can lose their bearings in the sea of green hype, consider the case of Fiji Water. With its bottles featuring images of pristine tropical flowers, the Fiji company started to worry when critics began bashing the environmental impact of water bottles, which will pile up in landfills for thousands of years. It got more worried when it became fashionable for consumers to calculate the carbon footprint of the products they buy—the amount of greenhouse gas emitted in manufacturing and distribution. The bottled-water business has absurdly big feet. Unlike tap water, bottled water doesn't flow freely to the people who drink it, but must be carried by gas-guzzling trucks and planes in bottles made of plastic (which is made from petroleum). So late last year Fiji president Rob Six decided to meet the "water backlash" head-on with a plan to reduce the use of packaging, switch to more efficiently recyclable plastics and compensate for other carbon sins by buying offsets that would reduce emissions elsewhere. His goal was to make Fiji not only trendily "carbon neutral" but carbon negative. Never mind that most experts say that the whole premise of carbon offsets is based on dubious math (how to measure a carbon footprint?) and morals (paying others so you can pollute?). Consuming a bottle of Fiji Water will actually reduce the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere, the company's marketing now claims.

[PROCON]

Ping!

[JennysCool]

we all sin against the environment

It's a religion, all right.

And an endlessly stupid one.

[Nick Danger]

Consuming a bottle of Fiji Water will actually reduce the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere

What, drinking their water makes you stop breathing? To Hell with that.

[Dilbert San Diego]

The similarity between sales of carbon offsets and medieval church indulgences is striking, not least because there’s about equal proof that the two actually work.

---

I’ve always wondered about this concept. It’s supposed to be beneficial to buy carbon credits, but it always gets me that you are still producing the same “evil” carbon pollution footprint as before. You have simply paid someone for the continuing priviledge of having the allegedly evil carbon footprint. You haven’t done anything to reduce your own emissions by buying a carbon credit.

[goldstategop]

It tells you a lot about liberal stupidity - and the nonsense fueling the Green Hype!

"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]

Well its a Ponzi scam. There's no evidence that it does ANYTHING to reduce CO2 emissions output. But it does make guilty people feel better about themselves and liberals carry around with them an awful lot of guilt. So going along with silly schemes like this is their way of alleviating the unresolved conflicts within themselves. It isn't really about showing how much the liberal cares about Nature.

"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

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Just because we all sin against the environment

Sorry, Newsweek - I'm not part of your religion.

[ModelBreaker]

It's a religion, all right. And an endlessly stupid one.

Does Gaia worship need a Reformation?

[metesky]

Well its a Ponzi scam.

Which is why politicians everywhere are scurrying to get in on it.

[kitkat]

***I’ve always wondered about this concept. It’s supposed to be beneficial to buy carbon credits, but it always gets me that you are still producing the same “evil” carbon pollution footprint as before. You have simply paid someone for the continuing priviledge of having the allegedly evil carbon footprint. You haven’t done anything to reduce your own emissions by buying a carbon credit.***

Dilbert, you’ve got that exactly right. The same amount of carbon is involved, whether you create it or the person you sell your carbon rights to creates it.

IT’S A BIG SCAM, and Al Gore and others are getting richer and richer by promoting it.

[P.O.E.]

10 Commandments to Save the Planet (Courtesy of Bolivian President Morales)

Just to show how leftist this tripe really is underneath it all.

[Puppage]

So late last year Fiji president Rob Six decided to meet the "water backlash" head-on with a plan to reduce the use of packaging, switch to more efficiently recyclable plastics and compensate for other carbon sins by buying offsets that would reduce emissions elsewhere.

And, it gets to America.......HOW?

Thought so.

[reformedliberal]

Since everyone is on their last nerve over energy costs and the resultant impact on every aspect of our lives, at some point there has to be some final straw that makes the liberals scream at the inculcators that they cannot feel any more guilt and, damn it, they are going to be warm in the winter.

If they don't, it is extremely difficult to feel sorry for them. There comes a point where anyone with any self respect stops enabling their own abuse.

[PA Engineer]

Just because we all sin against the environment

Animism and idol worship.

[Clock King]

But, as Ayn Rand said in Atlas Shrugged, “What makes you think they want to live?” Took me two readings of that book before I understood what she meant. These people, literally, do not want to live; but they are not about to commit suicide either. They desperately want to live in fantasy world apart from reality.