The Great Ripoff
An Inconvenient Truth
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Featured Stories | Policy — Comments (14) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
In the search for policy instruments that will battle the perceived deleterious consequences of climate change, the environmental movement has latched on to carbon credits and offsets as a means by which humankind's carbon footprint can be reduced. Carbon credits and offsets are a kind of free lunch. If you feel badly about your lifestyle and think that it is wrecking the environment, carbon credits will help you sleep better at night without changing a thing concerning the way you consume energy in your daily activities.
Read on for more . . .
This makes carbon credits and offsets sound like the environmental version of a free lunch. As Milton Friedman said, there is no such thing as a free lunch. And he was right. Carbon credits are a fraud. A great, big, massive fraud. And the following passage from Jonathan Adler sums up the problem:
The idea of markets for carbon emissions is a good one. If carbon dioxide emissions need to be reduced, it makes sense to achieve those reductions in the most cost-effective manner possible. Carbon credits can also enable those with stronger environmental preferences to take additional voluntary action, such as celebrity carbon offset purchasers have purported to do. The problem is that offset plans can often be more difficult and costly to verify than more traditional means of controlling emissions. When these costs are factored in, it is not always the case that such market-based approaches are more cost-effective than more clumsy alternatives.
The bottom line is that if Al Gore and Leo DiCaprio truly want to be sure they are reducing their carbon footprint, they are going to have to reduce their own energy consumption, rather than paying others to do it for them.
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The Great Ripoff 14 Comments (0 topical, 14 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
He buys carbon credits from his own company. The company invests in energy schemes of dubious utility. He is also on the board of lehman brothers, who are looking to be a market maker in carbon trading.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Oh, but wait ... Johann's market-driven technique, while futile in its denial of the solution provided by the sole authority in its field, was at least positioned as the answer to a very real and universally acknowledged problem!
soli Deo gloria
Or did you leave off the end sarcasm tag?
I don't think there is anything close to universal acceptance of a human caused or a carbon caused global warming problem.
My understanding is that Mars and several other planets in our solar system are also warming right along with us. Did humans cause those?
I have been scuba diving in the ceynotes in the Yucatan and in those caves, fully 80 feet underwater, you can find primitive fireplace hearths. The earth has obviously been warming along with rises in sea level for a long time and man was not emitting much carbon dioxide back then. People are still around so obviously humans managed to adjust to the change. Who is to say that a warmer earth will not also be a better earth? Real estate in San Diego seems to sell at a premium over similarly located real estate in Alaska and Arizona is one of our fastest growing states precisely because of its temperate climate.
So just what is this very real and univerally acknowledged problem?
If the allusive, implied sarcasm doesn't emerge in a much.slower.second.reading, then to be more direct:
I'm in full agreement with you!
soli Deo gloria
bold off.
Socialism doesn't work. It looks nice on paper, but it's been tried and it's failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
unless I need just a closing tag.
Socialism doesn't work. It looks nice on paper, but it's been tried and it's failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
Wouldn't it be ironic if the purveyors of fraudulent carbon offsets were prosecuted under "Blue Sky" laws?
chsw
Why has there been no thread on Redstate devoted solely to the vote of the House and the Senate on the War Supplemental Bill that will now go to President Bush?
1. What has this got to do with carbon credits or false solutions for AGW?
2. Have you not even looked at posts here? There have been MANY threads discussing the War Supplemental and the sham that the Democrats made of it.
Socialism doesn't work. It looks nice on paper, but it's been tried and it's failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
Sorry I didn't put an "OT" to my posting - but at the time I posted the only references to the Supplemental bills were topics discussed prior to the vote.
I didn't see any thread created that discussed the actual votes (for example who were the 13 Demorcrats congressmen that voted against the bill, what were the explanations for Republican Senators missing this key vote, etc.)
So to answer you question #2, the only threads I had seen were prior to the actual House and Senate votes and as for #1, hopefully I've apologized for placing my question in a totally off topic thread.
that instead of posting in a thread that is FAR off topic, start your own blog entry.
If it's a topic you feel needs discussed, but you don't see anything on it, start the discussion. If it's something that interests others, you'll find out soon enough.
Posting off topic tends to just get responses like mine.
Socialism doesn't work. It looks nice on paper, but it's been tried and it's failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
I do appreciate the help and advice. I've only been here at Redstate for a couple of months so there's a little learning process to each blog site - I do like the discussions here a great deal, excellent stuff.
Thanks again...my options have been duly noted : )
Who is getting rich?