The Psychology of Carbon Credits

The Freakster does not understand the thinking behind Carbon Credits. He is turning to you, the general pubic, for help to explain this to him.

Here is what he thinks he understands. If you are John Edwards and you cut down the forest and then you build a big ass house that needs tons of heat, it is okay because you can buy "carbon offsets".

This is like if you curse out the priest at church it is okay, if on Sunday you give an extra $50 that you would not have given otherwise. It pays the debt.

If you were to "sleep with" the neighbor's wife and then felt bad about it and took him out for a beer then that would balance things out. Would you have to tell him you slept with his wife or would just buying him the beer to make him feel really good, be enough?

How, in the mind of the person buying the carbon offsets does this work? It is okay to pollute so long as you do somthing "offsetting"? If you were really concerned, if you were really sincere, wouldn't you not do the offending action to begin with?

If you are poor, then you are screwed. You better not do anything that could pollute because you don't have the money to buy your way out of the mess that you created. This deal only works for rich folks.