You had only just gotten your head around the whole carbon credit thing before getting mentally side-swiped by such websites as Cheat Neutral, who tell you buying your way out of an energy intensive lifestyle is like paying a single guy to remain celibate to offset your infidelity. Now, while you're still reeling, stand by for yet another whack on the back of the head....

Introducing 'Carbon Credit Killers', whose purpose in life is to undo any potentially beneficial effects of purchased carbon credits, by selling carbon 'debits'. That's right - you can pay them to destroy a tree on your behalf. Essentially, they are offering to offset other people's offsets....

Carbon Credits Carbon Offsetting Makes a Real Difference Carbon Offsetting Can Make a Difference Carbon Offsetting Makes No Difference Carbon Offsetting Merely Shifts Responsibility I Don't Know, but I Like Clicking on Voting Buttons

I'm hoping this is, like Cheat Neutral, just a spoof, but here's the blurb from their 'why we do it' page:

The reason we sell Carbon Debits is simple – we want to take away the pathetic excuse of Carbon Credits from those liberals who hide their shame filled lives behind money-bought lunacy. Carbon Credits are simply a way for the rich (Al Gore) to continue to hypocritically live lives that look nothing like what they try to enforce on everyone else in society. We want to take away those excuses.

Our goal is to completely wipe out every Carbon Credit ever bought by selling their nullifying opposite – the Carbon Debit. The guilt and shame that caused people to buy Carbon Credits in the first place will be placed back on them as we let them know that their actions caused us to nullify their credits. They are the cause of us killing trees; they need to face up to their guilt. - Carbon Credit Killers

Here's their procedure:

Very simply, we provide a way to fight the fallacy of Carbon Credits by selling Carbon Debits. These are not just meaningless words but have actions behind them as we remove a tree for every debit purchased.

After receiving a Carbon Debit purchase we would process it as follows: 1. Carbon Debit Purchase is recorded and Certificate of Purchase is emailed 2. Our Carbon Debit Specialist is notified of the Carbon Debit Purchase 3. The Carbon Debit Specialist executes one tree for every Carbon Debit purchased. 4. The destruction of the tree is relayed back to Carbon Debit head-quarters for final Carbon Debit confirmation. - Carbon Credit Killers

Carbon Debits, apparently, are only US$5 a tree. Can anyone tell me if that's a realistic figure to make a viable tree-destroying business?

 

 

Hat Tip: Linton

Further Reading:

• The Carbon Offset Conundrum
• Carbon Certification Standard Release Imminent
• Is the UK on the Right Track?
• Gore's Solar Panels: Bad Investment, So-so Environmentalism, Good Politics
• Al Gore's Carbon Love Life
• Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth