Is Carbon Offsetting Cheating?

Watch this video to understand the situation

As the saying goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. So goes the running argument about whether offsetting your carbon footprint is a useful contribution to our eco-system or just another futile exercise in pretending to be doing good by spending your all-mighty dollar.

It’s in the headlines: NewsCorp and Yahoo have been some of the more vocal companies offsetting their footprints. While Yahoo is quite honest that their plan is for the future, they are very hesitant to point out what they are doing to actually reduce their footprint at this very moment.

The wisecracking people of Cheat Neutral have gone ahead and pointed out the true irony in Offsetting. They’re comparing it to cheating on your girlfriend or spouse and then sending her flowers, chocolates and jewelry.

We here at Green Steam feel that you would be better off saving your money for a more expensive hybrid car or a solar rooftop than purchasing carbon credits. The one thing we really never liked about this scheme, was that the offset companies were often 'using' the money to accomplish something you could never verify or see the results of. Things like handing out compact fluorescent bulbs in South Africa or building a hydroelectric plant in India seemed to be the priorities. Why not fix things here, maybe because someone would be watching and the results would be measurable?

via Eco-chick