Source:
New York Times, January 9, 2008
GE, one of the world's biggest polluters, sponsors a carbon offsets credit card that lets cardholders put a 1% cash rebate on purchases toward projects that help mitigate global warming.The Federal Trade Commission is looking into the booming business of selling carbon offsets, which are billed as a way "to balance the emissions created by, say, using a laptop computer or flying on a jet." Deborah Platt Majoras, chairwoman of the FTC feels that with the tremendous growth in the field, there is potential for abuse of the public's trust. The last revision of the FTC's environmental advertising guidelines was in 1997, and did not include terms common today, like sustainability, carbon offsets or renewable energy. "As more companies use offset programs to create an environmental halo over their products, the commission said it was growing increasingly concerned that some green marketing assertions were not substantiated. Environmentalists have a word for such misleading advertising: 'greenwashing.'" Corporations that are offering carbon offset credits to consumers include Dell, Continental Airlines, General Electric, Bank of America, and Volkswagen. "The FTC has not accused anyone of wrongdoing -- neither the providers of carbon offsets nor the consumer brands that sell them. But environmentalists say -- and the FTC's hearings suggest -- that it is only a matter of time until the market faces greater scrutiny from the government or environmental organizations."
carbon offsets
For further information on offseting and market approaches to climate change in general, there is this new documentary called The Carbon Connection.
It looks at two communities affected by one new global market – the trade in carbon dioxide. In Scotland a town has been polluted by oil and chemical companies since the 1940s. In Brazil local people's water and land is being swallowed up by destructive monoculture eucalyptus tree plantations. Both communities now share a new threat. As part of the deal to reduce greenhouse gases that cause dangerous climate change, major polluters can now buy carbon credits that allow them to pay someone else to reduce emissions instead of cutting their own pollution.
What this means for those living next to the oil industry in Scotland is the continuation of pollution caused by their toxic neighbours. Meanwhile in Brazil the schemes that generate carbon credits gives an injection of cash for more planting of the damaging eucalyptus tree. The two communities are now connected by bearing the brunt of the new trade in carbon credits. The Carbon Connection follows the story of two groups of people from each community who learned to use video cameras and made their own films about living with the impacts of the carbon market. From mental health issues in Scotland to the loss of medicinal plants in Brazil, the communities discover the connections they have with each other and the film follows them on this journey.
40 minutes | PAL/NTSC | English/Spanish/Portuguese subtitles
More information at http://www.carbontradewatch.org/carbonconnection/