Carbon Offsets: The "Wait a sec!" factor

Gristmill: "Intuitively, though, it feels like there's something wrong with this picture. When you stop and think about it, the whole idea of driving a car, paying money into a green kitty to offset the CO2 from burning the gas, and then calling the car trip carbon-neutral, is ludicrous."

We've talked about this dilemma several times already and gradually the light seems to be going on. If all we ever do is pay dollars to assuage guilt over polluting, but keep on polluting, we're gonna lose the battle against global warming. You can't pay Peter to rob Paul.

Carbon offsetting has a transitional role to play. As I've emphasized before, it's a good way to raise visibility and create a consciousness about human actions. If you pay the "carbon tax" often enough, you'll soon figure out that it might be better just not to pollute at all. And there are still too many times when you just have to drive somewhere.

Ultimately the issue becomes travel, of course. If the Dave Matthews Band could ride bikes to its arenas, and if DMB fans could walk, hike or ride to concerts, there wouldn't be a problem. But how do you get a great band together with its fans and NOT pollute? Until we crack that nut, offsetting isn't ludicrous. Lamentable, yes. But the only feasible alternative.

In the meantime, think about this: Relocalization. Before cheap oil and vastly subsidized transportation, music fans and musicians got together locally. I can dimly recall from my wayward youth going to concerts that did not feature the Beatles or Stones or any big name national band, and having just as much fun (maybe more), spewing comparatively minimal carbon into the atmosphere.

-- Paul Andrews, GreenforGood

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