Pay more, pollute more? The problem with carbon off-sets
Pay more, pollute more? The problem with carbon off-sets
Carbon offsets, a growing multi-billion dollar global industry, is a simple premise with an altruistic motivation: purchasing a carbon offset to cancel out the emissions generated by activities like flying or driving, and direct that money to programs that reduce emissions elsewhere. The developing problem is that carbon offsets are discouraging pollution but rather assuaging the guilt of the polluters. Travel company Responsible Travel just cancelled its carbon offset program because while it might help customers feel virtuous it wasn’t doing anything to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Is this a fundamental problem with cap-and-trade, carbon offset strategy?
Guests:
Justin Francis, CEO of Responsible Travel, which promotes travel that respects and benefits local people and the environment.
CALL HIM:
Robert Stavins, professor of business & government at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; director of the Harvard University Environmental Economics Program
- Patt Morrison for November 20, 2009
- Women advised to undergo fewer Pap screenings
- The politics of health: preventative care, policy changes & recriminations
- Pay more, pollute more? The problem with carbon off-sets
- Gross negligence: the U.S. government’s liability for failed levees
- White House interference in Kevin Johnson case?
- OBAMANOS!
Also on this episode
Events
Comedy Congress Live
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
7:30 p.m.
- 9 p.m.
The comedic material emanating from Washington D.C., and state capitols across the country, is enough to make any sitcom writer jealous, even if most of that comedy is unintentional. Our motto on Comedy Congress is that just when politics makes you want to cry, it’s usually best to laugh.
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