Wednesday, November 29, 2006

You can buy your way out of global warming

Recently I heard a story on the radio. The reporter was talking about the concept of people being able to invest in some sort of “pollution offset”. It basically means that a person can opt to spend a little more on things like their electricity, and in theory this extra money gets invested in some form of alternative or renewable energy. For example, maybe you live in Santa Fe and opt to have 10% tagged onto your utility bill and that 10% will be invested in building wind farms in Maine. It kinda sounds like a good idea, huh? The “investing” is handled by some middle-man. The idea is that you can offset your own contribution to global warming by investing some of your money elsewhere. So, you are not actually lowering your contribution to global warming or pollution, just hopefully helping others somewhere else make up for it. One example the reporter talked about was dealing with an “investor” who would take your money and invest it in alternative technologies. The investor claimed that the money was being used for things that were being utilized right now, not some futuristic technologies down the road. One in particular he talked about was a truck stop where truckers would typically park overnight. Instead of the truckers needing to keep their trucks idling all night, they would have the ability to somehow plug into electric stations. The investor claimed that this was already in use. The reported had to break the news to the investor that these stations were not built yet and not being used. The investor stumbled over his words for a minute, but assured him that the money was being invested carefully and the technologies would be in production very soon.

Another option I heard about recently had to deal with some car maker (I cannot recall which one, but I believe it was a European maker) that was making a version of one of their cars with an alternative fuel engine. I do not know if they disclosed what this was, but it was going to cost quite a bit more than the “regular” version, but produce about 30% less pollution. The premise of the story was that if you had the money, you could do your part to save the world; as if us regular folk were the bad guys destroying the world. Well, here is a radical idea: how about getting the “regular” version of the car and drive it 30% less than one normally would? Perish the thought! Why would anyone even consider driving less to reduce their part on pollution?

The trend here is that the government, media, and society in general do not want to accept the fact the pollution and global warming are issues that we need to deal with – the hard way. We cannot simply spend a few more dollars here and there to make the problem go away. Everyone always dances around the real solution: use less. If I just replace my light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, recycle more, and maybe buy a hybrid car, I am doing my part to save the world, right? I hate to tell ya, it might make you feel all warm and fuzzy, but in reality you are still part of the problem.

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