Did any of you watch the Academy Awards tonight? What has been described as a non-partisan environmentalist group, National Resources Defense Council or NRDC, helped the Oscar’s “go green” this year. Efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the event included use of recycled paper, renewable energy sources, and hybrid vehicles for transportation, organic menus, donating leftover food, and offsetting of carbon emissions.
The event was declared carbon neutral, a term that I wasn’t familiar with. This means that whatever amount of greenhouse gases were released by the event, this same amount was purchased in offsets that support the development of renewable energy sources. I have to admit the whole concept of purchasing offsets seems kind of convoluted to me. Shouldn’t we be using the renewable energy to begin with rather than “offsetting” it after we’ve released carbon-dioxide and methane into the atmosphere? Clearly, the world’s energy isn’t currently supplied by renewable sources so this probably isn’t an option. But my concern is whether these offsets are actually effective. I’ve come to the conclusion that offsetting your carbon emissions by monetarily supporting renewable energy sources is the most effective way to un-do what you’ve done. It seems that other means such as planting trees may not be as effective. I just hope that people really think about changing what they are doing rather than just undoing it.
3 comments:
I can't agree with your post more. So many people look for easier ways to go about patching up environmental problems rather than making the effort to stop the problem at the source. It can be looked at as taking the easy way out. Another great example of this type of behavior is the person who produces an extraordinary amount of waste and justifies it by saying that it will get recycled. Although recycling is an excellent way to preserve our resources, it is not a reason to produce more garbage. Many times people who are not willing to change their own living habits look for easy ways to make themselves feel better about the damage they are causing the environment.
Although no one will probably read this, I just wanted to add something. The day after the Oscar's and Al Gore winning an award for "The Inconvenient Truth" critics came out with information regarding the Gore family gas and electric bill. According to The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, Al Gore's home uses 20 times the average household amount of energy. He must be buying a lot of offsets!
http://www.tennesseepolicy.org/main/article.php?article_id=367
Wow!
Yes, Al buys carbon offsets, but apparently he has connections to Occidental Chemical/Oil as well.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/steyn/281949,CST-EDT-STEYN04.article
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