Like any other field of human endeavor, the environmental movement has opened the door to a variety of con men and entrepreneurs, looking to make money from laws and programs designed to promote conservation. Among the more recent profiteers are the carbon credit merchants, middle men who take a cut from the transfer of pollution rights. Offering money to those who reduce carbon emissions by protecting forest, by adhering to no-till farming or by a host of other means, these agents then sell the emission rights to various industrial or transportation companies, eliminating their need to implement pollution control technologies.
In effect, this system uses carbon-reduction practices to offset the release of carbon by other segments of human society. Those who engage in this carbon-neutral system boast that they are protecting the environment though there is no net decrease in carbon production. Indeed, this system discourages a move toward technologies that reduce pollution by providing a cheaper means of compliance with federal regulations.
If the power brokers of human society truly cared about the health of our environment, they would transition to cleaner forms of energy, implement better pollution control technologies and, in addition, donate funds to conservation organizations that work to reduce the destruction of forests and grasslands. Of course, this approach would eliminate the need for carbon merchants; perhaps they could sell bicycles.
