A green con

This film confirms something I have suspected for some time- that carbon offsetting does not reduce carbon emissions by very much.
Carbon neutrality is a middle class marketing scheme by which retailers will purchase carbon credits to offset the CO2 emitted in their own operations. What is a carbon credit? This is a credit generated where a company or nation who is 'entitled' to emit carbon finds some way not to do so. There are a number of problems with this. Firstly, the payments may not change economic behaviour very much. In other words an investment in green technology may have taken place anyway. Secondly (and the film does not address this) the payments often go overseas. This gives foreign competitors an advantage in green technology that we should reserve for ourselves.
This website is carbon neutral. You may think that all websites are carbon neutral but the page you are viewing is stored on a server that consumes a great deal of power. To offset this I support plant conservation projects around the world. My main object is not offsetting. It is the hope that these endangered plants may have economic value for some very poor people.