CARBON OFFSETS ARE DIET COKING THE EARTH

The first time I really paid attention to the concept of carbon offsets was while watching the credit sequence of the truly awesome film Syriana. In the credits it explained that the production had it's polution offset by some company or another. What that means in practical terms is that they worked out all of the pollution they caused by flying around the Earth to make their movie and then paid a company to do things like plant trees and such that would help offset that pollution.

Now, to me, this always seemed like an empty gesture since pollution is immediate and it takes years for trees to grow. It reminded me of fat people ordering a huge chocolate sundae and then a Diet Coke. Diet Coke isn't actually good for you at all, it's just less bad for you. There's nothing healthy about Diet Coke. There's nothing that helps you lose weight. And, it turns out, according to a September 23, 2007 article at http://TimesOnline.co.uk (readable here: http://urltea.com/1lkn), that carbon offsets are just as less bad for the Earth as Diet Coke is for you.

In a nutshell, a carbon offset company called Climate Care pays impoverished farmers in India to stop using polluting diesel pumps in favor of human-foot-powered treadles that power a pump used on farms. The catch? It's the kids of the farmers who get stuck doing all the work and it gets worse. Check out a cutting from the article:

Last week Indian experts criticised the scheme, saying it was promoting child labour and forcing poor farmers to work harder so that wealthy air travellers could enjoy exotic holidays without worrying about the environment.

“The problem is the number of times child labour is involved,” claimed Ashutosh Pandey of Emergent Ventures India, which advises companies on clean technology.

“It’s not being monitored properly. It’s not reducing emissions. People are selling their diesel pumps to others who are using them.”

Sunita Narain, an environmentalist at the Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi think tank, said: “It won’t help global warming if people take more flights to the Seychelles.”

Just like Diet Coke.

There's no immediate way to get around ruining the environment with carbon-burning tech. Absolutely none. I take the bus around LA or walk (!) but that doesn't help the environment--it just Diet Cokes it--makes the damage a bit more slow going. The same goes for carbon offsets. The damage is done when you fly a plane--period.

So, what's the solution?

Well, as usual, I lay the blame responsibility on the big corporations. They can afford to stop making cars that pollute. They can afford to develop airplane engines that don't spew toxic fumes into the atmosphere. They can sink money into developing new, clean technologies to help stop pollution in its tracks.

All we can do is switch to fluorescent light bulbs, recycle our trash and grocery bags, eat locally grown foods, drive a hybrid or take the bus. You know what? It's going to take more than that to counter-act all the technology that is still going to be spewing in the meantime.

Force big business to start giving a crap about the world and you'll see some serious changes. Let's see one of those billion-dollar businessmen sacrifice some of his salary to help save the sky from going gray forever.

Come on, are we still going to use the "they've got to make a living" excuse for the continued trashing of Terra?

Oh and if you're a Digger, please digg this story by going here:

http://digg.com/environment/Carbon_offsetting_increasing_child_labour_in_developing_countries

Thanks!