Like a lot of folks I am on Facebook, though it's under my real name so don't bother trying to find huntsu there. Today I noticed that one of my friends added "Greenbook", a third party app that puts advertising on your pages and uses the revenue to buy carbon offsets.
That always seems like a good idea, but I think it's getting out of hand. Too often these offset programs are an excuse to continue our bad energy use behaviors and still feel good about ourselves. "Well, sure, I'm driving a hummer and leave my windows open while heating or cooling my house, but I bought three acres of trees in Bolivia to offset my stupid ass behavior."
It's not just that consumers are thinking this way, but the carbon offset "industry" is marketing itself to encourage that kind of thought. The "Greenbook" app says:
Facebook servers and your computer use energy with puts C02 into the air. Installing the Greenbook application generates money through sponsorship, which is used to reduce harmful emissions. So now we can bug-out 18hrs a day on Facebook, knowing that we are doing our part for the planet. :)
Essentially they are saying that we can consume, consume, consume our way out of global warming when our incredible over-consumption is the cause of the damned problem in the first place!
And, not for nothing here, but an even better way to make a difference is not to stay on the Facebook 18 hours a fricking day. Then the energy isn't being used in the first place.
And while they are telling us to consume our way out, they are also putting images out there that make no sense. For some reason, they have a picture of a tree saying "Yay!" that you are reducing C02 emissions, when in truth trees actually like C02 because that's the prime ingredient in photosynthesis. They're marketing this program as if we're gonna save the trees, but the trees may be better off if we don't make a change.
This gets me to a point I've made a few times in the past, including in a recent diary on Al Gore, that we shouldn't focus on halting or reversing global warming because we like the trees and birdies and fishies and those poor sad looking polar bears. While this is about human's impact on nature, it is not about nature in the end.
The main concern over global warming is that it will change climate patters and weather to the point where it will make our lives harder, less fruitful and more miserable. It's about trying to make sure that human beings don't shit where they sleep.
And that's exactly what we are doing. Shit is just emissions from eating, and C02 and methane and other greenhouse gasses are just shit from burning carbon fuels. We're shitting out our cars every day, and eventually the stink and the bacteria is going to kill us all.
We can't keep on with our same behaviors, and groups like Greenbook and a bunch of other feel-good carbon offset activities I've seen out there encourage us to keep on keeping on. They want us to believe we can buy our way out of having to shit in the toilet instead of our beds.
If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, bike to the 7-11 instead of driving. Get a smaller car. Turn the air conditioning temperature up and use a fan, and turn the heating temperature down. Wear a sweater. Take shorter showers. Insulate your house. Turn down the temperature of the water heater. Play with the kids in the backyard instead of driving to Chuckie Cheese. Buy food grown locally instead of food shipped across the continent. Use florescent lights (and hope before the burn out we figure out how to recycle them). Turn off the computer when you are done instead of leaving Facebook or DailyKos up so it's still there in the morning.
Recycle your stuff, and join groups like Freecycle. Buy less stuff. Use less stuff. Waste less stuff. It all requires manufacturing and transportation and a well-lit, temperature controlled store to keep it in until you buy it and bring it home.
This is not to say we shouldn't buy carbon offsets or encourage companies to find ways to reduce emissions or capture carbon from the air. It's good to do what you can on that front, too.
But the marketing strategy of some of these groups is ridiculous, pretending that we can consume our way out of the impact of our consumption. It encourages behavior that makes the offsets themselves meaningless.