Comment on Study: Carbon offsets aren’t doing their job, overstate impact
MisterChief@lemmy.world 1 year ago
All I’ve seen since carbon offsets became a thing is how a lot of the projects were either ineffective or outright scams. The idea itself doesn’t incentivise the large carbon producers to actually reduce their emissions, but simply pay to say they are carbon neutral so they can slap it on their website for some positive pr.
simply pay to say they are carbon neutral so they can slap it on their website for some positive pr.
and go further back, and the whole idea of "carbon footprint" was a scam from the get go.
It's scams and distractions all the way down, anything and everything to make sure people don't look at the real cause of the problem - those making all the money and the system that enables and encourages them at the expense of the rest of us.
If the cost was actually enough to store the CO2 they emit (and offset the other environmental damages from the sequestration), then it would be fine. But it would be so costly for some industries, that positive PR wouldn't offset the cost.
The most effective carbon sinks are peatlands. the approx. 3 Mio. km2 in Canada sequester 370 Million Tonnes of Carbon a year.
Canada alone emitted 679 Million Tonnes in 2022, with a population of just about 30 Million people.
There is simply no capacity to offset the emissions we have, even with radical land transformation. The only way is to drastically cut emissions and cut them fast.
Even if they worked, it’s like someone breaking your arm and then paying the hospital bill and calling it a day.
No, it’s nothing like that. Nature doesn’t care if a given gram of co2 was recently released or not. It only cares about the sum total. If the carbon capture schemes actually did grab a gram for every gram released, and then keep it stored for at least a century, that’d work fine.
It’s just that they almost certainly don’t. They’re way too cheap for the best capture systems we have, and they’re not necessarily sequestering that carbon to keep it out of the atmosphere for more than a few years.
We are almost certainly going to need actual carbon sequestration. We’re too close to emitting too much already.
evranch@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
I farm in Canada which has a carbon tax, $65/ton. We’re in the grip of terrible drought and I’ve sold all my livestock. Thought maybe I could do the world a little good and maybe make some money off my empty pastures by planting some trees or something.
After talking to the regulators it was obvious it’s a HUGE fraud. There’s so much red tape, and by the time you’re done talking to them you find out that you can make $1-5/ton for sequestering carbon. And due to flat fees in the regulatory structure, it’s really just designed to funnel this money to huge landowners and not to encourage anyone who cares to plant trees or do anything really.
So working Canadians are forced to pay $65/ton to heat their homes and drive to work, but big emitters buy credits for under $5 and continue to pour out pollution while claiming to be “carbon neutral”. It’s the Canadian way
NathanielThomas@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Indeed. And the irony of it all is the drought that put you under is due to climate change.
evranch@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
In this particular case it’s “maybe”… I farm on the edge of the Palliser Triangle, famous for drought cycles over the centuries.
However climate change is definitely shifting the dynamics of the seasons here, with rainfall getting front-loaded into the “useless” months from February - May and scarcely a drop during the summer when we need it. It’s the same volume or possibly even more but it’s useless for crops or pastures.
I’ve pivoted to selling hay as it’s capable of growing decently off of the runoff pulse. Those with suitable land are going all in on irrigation as the spring runoff can be stored in lakes and reservoirs. It’s an odd situation here as the ground often stays frozen until after the snow melts, so very little snow water soaks in.
RegularGoose@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
If you really want to to some good with that land, although it won’t make you any money, turn it back into a native natural habitat, or at least sell it to someone who will agree to do the same.