First I was not too surprised that the worst offenders were the big power companies (BP and PowerGen) and airlines. They're in a win-win-win system:
- those people who don't understand the issues give them credit; - those people who do understand the situation, but don't believe in man-made climate change, see it as "Yet another green scam". They aren't concerned that it is the biggest culprits on CO2 emissions perpetrating the scam; - those with concern about the environment already distrusted the power companies and airlines anyway.
Second, some of the carbon credit company representatives appear to believe they have a genuine product. However, they are treading a dangerous line between gaining support by not scaring people off with the real cost of their mitigation schemes, and scientific correctness.
Seems to me that big businesses should stick to carbon trading schemes and stay out of "offsetting".
Individuals who want to use offsetting should either be charged a realistic sum for (accredited) offsetting, or as part of the deal we should be offered the chance to offset a proportion of emissions, but also directed by the offsetting companies towards information about climate change and other ways of reducing emissions - no "one-click" payment and guilt washed away.
Originally posted by Steve_M: - those with concern about the environment already distrusted the power companies and airlines anyway.
Steve, I thought it was a good program because it highlighted the need for real solutions not headline grabbing initiatives. Contrast EON's wind strategy in the UK and Germany. Powergen pull every trick in the book to plaster these monstrosities over our most precious landscape whereas the parent company complain, in their annual report, about the effect of intermitant wind power on the German national grid where they are responsible for operating part of it. Its all very well being able to take photos of turbines to appear to be doing something but has or will a single conventional power station been closed down as a result?
Personally, I don't think either offsetting or carbon trading will have any useful effects whatsoever. All they seem to do is push the problem somewhere else (usually under the carpet), so that those engaging in the schemes can carry on as normal.
However, I do think that companies such as BP and EON have a very significant part to play. As energy companies, they have a vested interest in getting it right, and they do seem to be taking the issue seriously. We may just find in the coming years that the greenest companies of the future are those that have the furthest to go. Maybe I should start buying shares in BP!
Personally, I don't think either offsetting or carbon trading will have any useful effects whatsoever. All they seem to do is push the problem somewhere else (usually under the carpet), so that those engaging in the schemes can carry on as normal.
I agree completely. They are just job creation/money making/placebos. A hard Marshall Plan type approach could work with clear, hard objectives set and driven by a coalition of the governments of the top 15 economies or let market forces drive a solution if a real problem starts (I prefer the latter because it would address reality and not stifle growth).
quote:
However, I do think that companies such as BP and EON have a very significant part to play. As energy companies, they have a vested interest in getting it right, and they do seem to be taking the issue seriously. We may just find in the coming years that the greenest companies of the future are those that have the furthest to go. Maybe I should start buying shares in BP!
What like car owners, Central heating owners, air conditioning owners, eaters of cooked food, flyers of planes, burners of coal, users of concrete, eaters of methane rich cattle, eaters of food grown in deforestated areas, eaters of rice, people who live on deforestated land like say the whole of england, europe, users of smelted metals.
I think that just about covers everyone who "messed up".
Global warming just gets more baffling! Some of the large corporations who, just 4 months ago, were allegedly paying some of the contributors in ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ to say that global warming was NOT caused by human produced carbon dioxide, have apparently completely changed their minds and are now actively seeking to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that they are responsible for inflicting upon the world!
According to ‘The Great Green Smoke Screen’, companies do this in a variety of amazingly ingenious ways, such as paying pig farmers to trap methane from their pigs’ shit under large pieces of tarpaulin to stop it from escaping and making the planet even warmer than it is now! And no, this documentary did not air on 1st April.
And individuals can even join in too, by paying someone £10 to plant a tree for them every time they fly somewhere! Presumably if this takes off in a big way the authorities will step in before they run out of space and have to plant them inside houses.
Both of these conflicting documentaries were shown on Channel 4.
Meanwhile, on the BBC…….. Ohmygod!!! The human race has gone for a swim in the toilet pan and the giant’s hand is on the flusher!!! BE SCARED, oh dross of habitat UK….. BE VERY SCARED…..
