Doesn't the idea of carbon offsets expose the push for "going green" to be a sham?

Question

If company A is environmentally conscious and they emit less CO2 pollution than allowed by law; and Company B is just the opposite; then A has surplus carbon credits and B has a deficiet.

Al Gore has invested with a few other people in a business to establish a center for exchanging carbon credits between people or businesses. He stands to make millions if not billions as an owner of the exchange where the credits will be traded.

But here's the problem with that, and this is what exposes Gore et al as complete phonies.

Allowing the trading of carbon credits allows the purchasers of carbon credits to continue as if nothing had happened.

IT ALLOWS THEM TO CONTINUE TO POLLUTE with no action taked to enforce compliance with pollution standards.

Carbon credits will allow some polluters to continue to pollute and Al Gore will get richer and richer in the process.

Answer 1

the practice is a practice in american economics. someone has something extra tthey sell it to someone who needs it for a profit.

hopefully the cost of buying the credits encourages the buying compay to clean up it's act.

in the mean time no factories need to close and no one needs to be out of  work. so yeah for the posibility.

The fact that Al Gore is responsible for making this available is a contradiction to all his speacjes and emphesis on going green. so yes it exposes his as a hypocrit.

Answer 2

Of course it's a scam.  People like Al Gore want power over our decisions, and take away our freedoms.

Al Gore is not fixing any so called global warming through buying carbon offsets.

Answer 3

Yes, the carbon credit scheme is a perfect example of how little global warming is about helping the planet and how much it is about making Al Gore and friends wealthier.

A 13 year old asked this very astute question recently, "Isn't selling carbon credits like selling air?"

Sadly making Al Gore wealthier gives him more money to fly his jet around and pollute even more than he already does.

Answer 4

The only people who have power over your decisions are the corportate interests that have a lot to lose by changing their practices.

The idea of carbon credits is to reward companies that are more green and make it more expensive for other companies to pollute.  It's supposed to be an economic inducement for the more polluting industries to clean up their act.

The rest of the nonsense being said about scams and such is just unaware people repeating the lies that people like Rush Limbaugh put out.

  The right wing talk show hosts are showing how out of step they really are, with their recent condemnation of McCain because he's not an extremist like they are.

I will say it again, this board is dominated by non thinking reactionary types who believe the most absurd trash..  They keep repeating

the same tired stuff about scams and conspiracies.  I will give the average reader the benefit of the doubt and assume that you can see through this.

Don't let the preponderance of these negative posts give you the idea that these ideas are any kind of concensus, other than on these question boards.  

  I invite you to read some of my answers if you'd like  informed comments about the environment.  I get tired of having to respond to all this nonsense.  

To say that Al Gore is doing what he is doing for money is just plain silly.