[antimedia] antimedia: Since pointing out Al Gore's conflict of interest....

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Posted by antimedia:
Since pointing out Al Gore's conflict of interest....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1173068461.shtml


   ....with [1]regard to carbon offsets, I have read some incredibly
   stupid defenses of Gore's cynicism. One person actually protested that
   "he's investing in what he believes in". Gee, how could you fault him
   for that? After all, bank robbers invest in what they believe in too!
   Don't all con men?
   But most have defended his use of carbon offsets as justifying his
   conspicuous consumption of energy. Now comes a [2]devastating analysis
   of carbon offsets from the respected Economist.

     MANY readers profess puzzlement as to how carbon offsets could fail
     to reduce one's carbon footprint. The answer is that they probably
     do reduce one's carbon footprint, but by nowhere near the
     one-for-one ration that seems to be implied by the extraordinarily
     low price of carbon offsets. Unless they are implemented under a
     cap-and-trade system, these sorts of environmental efforts are
     plagued by something called the rebound effect, which is to say
     that using more efficient technologies causes the price to fall,
     which causes people to use more of the carbon-emitting substances
     in question. This is particularly true in markets for things like
     electricity, which are characterised by monopoly providers and
     extremely high fixed costs for existing plant, making it unlikely
     that carbon emitting generators will actually be taken offline (and
     made worse by the fact that the dirtiest power is supplied by the
     baseload plants, which are least likely to be taken offline). If
     you are salving your conscience by buying carbon offsets, which
     allows you to cheerfully emit 20 times more than the average
     person, then even a conservatively estimated rebound effect means
     that carbon offsets are increasing the amount of emissions.

   So, if Gore is really serious about global warming, he should stop
   using carbon offsets immediately and adopt [3]President Bush's
   example. Of course, that would create a conundrum -- what to do with
   that investment company and all those millions of carbon offsets
   dollars?
   The rest of the article argues that buying carbon offsets in one
   market while purchasing "dirty power" in another (which is precisely
   what Gore is doing -- buying power in Tennessee while buying carbon
   offsets in Europe) actually causes consumption of "dirty" power to
   increase. The comment section is loaded with lots of interesting
   discussion as well. (Hat tip to [4]Austin Bay.)

References

   1. http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1172942863.shtml
   2. http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2007/03/a_tale_of_two_markets.cfm
   3. http://ecomall.com/greenshopping/tompaine.htm
   4. http://austinbay.net/blog/?p=1648