Thursday, January 31, 2008

Energy Offsets

What do you guys think?

One website I read compared it to eating rich food and then jogging the next day. It sounds to me like another way for rich people to insist they are environmentalists while continuing their insanely wasteful lifestyles.

Although the first comparison may be more accurate than it initially sounds... most people I know who overeat and then try to make up for it later end up overweight.

There is no way to undo an action once it has been taken.

2 comments:

Burbanmom said...

Personally, I think they're a crock. I would never let my son "offset" his bad behaviour by asking my daughter to do something nice. Just doesn't make sense. But I guess it's typical of human nature to put the onus on someone else. Here's a nice related farce, though...

http://www.cheatneutral.com/

Lawrence said...

It is often said (and perhaps not often enough) that we cannot spend our way out of this situation. The idea is to spend less, buy less, own less. I think supporting wilderness and wildlife protections is a better way to spend $50 or $100 than buying an offset for your trip to Yellowstone. At least be sure the money is put to direct use, direct protections.

The idea (what's really needed) is to vastly REDUCE coal and gas consumption, not just ADD wind, solar and other "renewable" power sources to the mix.

Less of the bad is more important than more of the good.