Thursday, December 21, 2006

I flew. Now what? George Monbiot vs. David Suzuki and the "carbon offsets" question

Here's the problem.

Flying is a huge contributor to climate change. I am relying on George Monbiot, a British journalist who just published a book called Heat. Heat gives facts and figures about climate change and its causes. I am prepared to accept that flying has a big impact. Unfortunately this news is (a) not really news to me, I have just been unwilling to accept it and (b) hitting me at a really bad time. Last year I made more, and longer, trips than I have ever done. Lots of guilt.

So, I'm ready, willing and able to do something to offset all this carbon I've pushed into the atmosphere. There have been carbon sequestration opportunities (planting trees, that sort of thing) available forever, really. Just this morning, Canadian Olympic skier Sara Renner was speaking quite earnestly about the measures she and her husband, Olympic skier Thomas Grandi, are taking to offset the carbon emissions they create by flying around the world to ski. Through some connection to David Suzuki (Canadian environmentalist), they pay $500 or so extra for every flight, to a fund for carbon sequestration.

The radio program I heard Sara Renner on is this morning's The Current on CBC Radio 1. Here's the program's home page: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/. Past shows are available through links on the left hand side of that page; you're looking for December 21, 2006.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Campaigns_and_Programs
/Climate_Change/News_Releases/newsclimatechange12080601.asp
This is a link to a press release from the David Suzuki Foundation about the impact of climate change on skiing. It talks about Renner and Grandi's decision to purchase "high-quality carbon offsets" and to live a carbon-neutral lifestyle.

So far, so good. If I can afford to travel, I can afford to pay extra and buy some of those great-sounding carbon offsets.

But here's the fly in the ointment. According to George Monbiot, buying carbon offsets doesn't solve the problem. It's not enough, it's too late, it's a temporary fix, it's often done in a way that causes more harm than good. http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/10/19/selling-indulgences/

I have just emailed the David Suzuki Foundation posing the question of how they would respond to Monbiot's objection. But I don't want anyone spending their holiday writing to me instead of spending time with their family, so I specifically suggested they could wait for January to reply. That seems only fair.

In the meantime, any thoughts?

Stern review on the Economics of Climate Change: my entry point

I want to understand climate change at both the personal level and in the big picture. Personally, I know what I have to do. Cut down on energy consumption. Flying is by far my worst contribution to climate change. Driving, home heating, home appliances are the other main ones.

For the big picture, I want to be able to convince people that this is a real problem. I want to have the key facts available and the deeper resources at my fingertips.

Here's the first one:

Stern review on the Economics of Climate Change. (The link is in the title of this blog entry).

This report came out on October 30, 2006. I haven't read it yet - a project for my quiet reading time over Christmas.