A rchive Date
[ 10-11-2019 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/gunter-the-futility-of-carbon-offsets
The futility of carbon offsets
Lorne Gunter
Published: November 9, 2019
Talk about throwing money at the problem.
Buying carbon offsets to cover the emissions you create in travelling or heating your home is nothing more than throwing money at a problem in hopes it will go away.
At best, if you use a reputable offset company, you might - might - succeed in preventing future emissions by erecting a solar panel somewhere in Africa or installing a waterless toilet at a national park in Peru.
But no matter how much money you pay, you will not - cannot - reduce emissions in the real world, today. You’re still flying, driving, turning up the thermostat or the A/C and producing all the emissions that go along with that.
Carbon offsets are like the corrupt medieval practice of buying indulgences from the Catholic church. Donating money in advance to have the local priest or bishop absolve you of sins you intended to commit.
Same thing.
So the futility of offsets - not to mention the preening sanctimony of them - is the top reason I never click “yes” when asked while buying an airline ticket online whether I would also like to purchase an offset to appease my conscience.
(I know Greta would be displeased, but frankly I don’t believe there is anything that would make her happy. Besides, she’s responsible for waaaay more emissions than I am.)
But there is also the hypocrisy of offset purchases, at least as engaged in by our prime minister, his party and family.
You’ll remember that the Liberals used two campaign planes during the recent election - one for Trudeau, his retinue and reporters, the other for his costumes, props, backdrops and vats of makeup. On one occasion, both planes took flights of 50 kilometres from one event to another.
But it was all OK, according to Justin Trudeau and the media who fawn over his every word, because the Liberal party had bought offsets to make all their tonnes of emissions go away. Never mind that the offsets were bought from Less Emissions Inc., a company owned by a former colleague of Trudeau’s chief advisor, Gerald Butts.
According to reports, the Trudeau family also purchased offsets for their post-election surfing holiday.
They didn’t stay in Ottawa and walk to a park or movie theatre or indoor playland, which would have produced no emissions and set an example. No, they flew across the country to Vancouver Island for some late-season boarding. But don’t worry, if reports are correct, they bought the appropriate amount of 21st-Century eco-indulgences.
Still, that’s not the hypocritical part.
The hypocrisy is that the Liberals are OK with using offsets to cover their tracks, but they bristle at the idea of anyone else - such as Alberta and Saskatchewan oil and gas companies or B.C. LNG projects - doing the same.
Despite what Twitterlectuals like to say on social media about the oilsands being the dirtiest environmental project on the planet, that’s just not true.
According to Yale University’s environmental performance index, Canada has the best environmental record of any of the 10-largest oil-producing nations on earth. And we have among the lowest emissions per barrel produced, too.
If we built more pipelines and more export ports, our cleaner resources could help lower emissions in other countries that, in the absence of Canadian fuels, have to buy from dirtier sources.
And if we could get credit for exporting more of our research and technology, we could double that benefit.
Despite the fact that this is exactly how offsets work, and despite the fact we have already established the Liberal government LOVES offsets (for themselves), when Alberta premier Jason Kenney recently raised the possibility of giving Alberta credit for the emissions it prevents elsewhere, Ottawa balked.
Do as the Liberals say, not as they do.
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