THE MTA JUST PAID BOOZ ALLEN THREE-QUARTERS OF A MILLION DOLLARS to measure its carbon footprint so that any available credits can be sold.
there are so many things wrong with this picture that i hardly know where to start.
the fact that the carbon offset market exists at all is obscene. this is a market in “unused pollution” — in other words, your business pollutes the planet, but pollutes it a bit less than the law allows. the difference between your pollution (your carbon footprint) and the legal limit are your carbon offset credits, which are now not only sold but around which an entire new stock market instrument has been developed.
I COULD PUT ON MY ROSE-COLORED GLASSES and view this as a positive thing in that it the potential profit encourages businesses to keep their emissions below the legal limit. but what is the legal limit? in the US it’s whatever the state says it is, and limits are typically set as high as possible in order not to piss off the corporations. because we did not sign the kyoto protocol, there is no national standard — even wikipedia is unable to articulate america’s policy on emissions.
IN PRACTICE, the limits are far too high. the environment has already sustained an intolerable amount of damage and, in order to reverse that, we need to dramatically — not minimally — decrease emissions. yet corporate influence and outrageous political gamesmanship combine to obscure this reality, opting to protect the almighty dollar rather than the earth under our feet.
carbon trading permits even these artificially high limits to be routinely exceeded, as dirty industries buy credits on the open market. this is the equivalent of leaving such industries almost entirely unregulated — and with far less incentive to adopt cleaner alternative standards, as they are now meeting the so-called legal standard.
the MTA is a perfect example of another insidious way that the carbon credit market works against energy conservation. the MTA implemented a number of conservation strategies simply to save money on their electric bill. in other words, they ALREADY had an incentive to lower their carbon footprint, without resorting to the sale of carbon credits. upon realizing they could sell those credits for profit, they hand booz allen big bucks to officially measure their footprint.
CARE TO GUESS how this NYC commuter feels about $750,000 of metrocard money going to a big consulting company, just so that some other company can buy the right to contaminate the environment more than it already does?
if
individuals were allowed (god forbid) to participate in this kind of insanity, you buying a prius would give me the right to buy an SUV — when in reality, the use of SUVs for casual commuting should be outlawed altogether.
what’s your carbon footprint? mine is 8.3, but a lot of that comes from plane trips that i am required by my employer to take. without that travel, i rate a very nice 4.4 — far below the national average of 7.5.
clearly, the best way i can reduce my carbon footprint is to take a job with a company that isn’t headquartered on the other side of the country. (i’ll get back to you on that!)
can you think of ways to reduce yours?
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Who gets the Carbon Credit Money? The Idiot Al the Gore Son of the Communist Controlled Albert Gore Senior. This is a fantasy of this nut job gore and the other perverts in swishy swishy La La Land.
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