Carbon Credits=Hypocrisy
There's something I don't get. Putting aside the whole global warming controversy, what's the deal with carbon credits? First I read that the Oscars, no doubt owing to its love-fest with Al Gore, "went green" by purchasing carbon credits. In other words, as I understand it, the production made a huge carbon footprint, so to offset the Oscars' contribution to global warming, they paid money. So if you have enough money it's OK to have a big carbon footprint?
Then yesterday I heard John Edwards on the radio saying it's OK he lives in a 10,000 square foot house that uses tons of energy because they offset their gargantuan carbon footprint by purchasing carbon credits.
I'm no scientist. But it seems to me this is a little like the rich people in the civil war paying money so a poor person can fight in their place. So if you're rich you can do whatever you want, even if it results in the death of a poor person (in the civil war), or contributes to the melting of the polar ice caps, as long as you can pay money to assuage your responsibility and/or guilt.
Why aren't all the liberals up in arms about this? I haven't seen the question mentioned anywhere. If people were really concerned about global warming, they would lead by example. Instead they want to force the rest of us to clean up our acts, unless of course we have the cash to buy a carbon credit, putting the burden on everybody else to do something about it.
For the record, I really don't care what house John Edwards, or Al Gore, or anybody else lives in. They probably provide lots of jobs for the local economy by having such high living standards. But it's the pontificating that irritates me. It's the "do as I say, not as I do" mentality. There's always an excuse for why it's OK for them & not for the rest of us. It's like when Robert Redford a few years ago came out bashing SUV owners for the irresponsibility of using gas guzzlers. When it was pointed out that he himself drove one, his response was "Well, I need one. I live on a ranch", or some such tripe. (I "need" one too: I have 4 kids with lots of stuff that has to be carted from point A to point B. And I feel safer driving one with all the numbskulls on the road out here in Suburbia. Is Robert Redford going to defend my right to drive one? I doubt it. I wonder how many carbon credits he buys every year...)
Then yesterday I heard John Edwards on the radio saying it's OK he lives in a 10,000 square foot house that uses tons of energy because they offset their gargantuan carbon footprint by purchasing carbon credits.
I'm no scientist. But it seems to me this is a little like the rich people in the civil war paying money so a poor person can fight in their place. So if you're rich you can do whatever you want, even if it results in the death of a poor person (in the civil war), or contributes to the melting of the polar ice caps, as long as you can pay money to assuage your responsibility and/or guilt.
Why aren't all the liberals up in arms about this? I haven't seen the question mentioned anywhere. If people were really concerned about global warming, they would lead by example. Instead they want to force the rest of us to clean up our acts, unless of course we have the cash to buy a carbon credit, putting the burden on everybody else to do something about it.
For the record, I really don't care what house John Edwards, or Al Gore, or anybody else lives in. They probably provide lots of jobs for the local economy by having such high living standards. But it's the pontificating that irritates me. It's the "do as I say, not as I do" mentality. There's always an excuse for why it's OK for them & not for the rest of us. It's like when Robert Redford a few years ago came out bashing SUV owners for the irresponsibility of using gas guzzlers. When it was pointed out that he himself drove one, his response was "Well, I need one. I live on a ranch", or some such tripe. (I "need" one too: I have 4 kids with lots of stuff that has to be carted from point A to point B. And I feel safer driving one with all the numbskulls on the road out here in Suburbia. Is Robert Redford going to defend my right to drive one? I doubt it. I wonder how many carbon credits he buys every year...)
posted by calabresewoman | 4:26 AM
1 Comments:
the carbon credits buisness is laughable...great analogy with the civil war.
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