Quote:
Originally Posted by wodahs
there was carbon credits and the scheme
where the farmers (owners) were paid for planting trees and carbon credits for the ongoing up keep
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There
should be only three ways of generating Carbon Credits:
- Reforestation. Growing Trees that are left there in perpetuity.
- Plantation Trees used for timber products, structural, plywoods, etc.
- artificial means of extracting atmospheric CO2, converting to Carbon, AND storing that Carbon Permanently
Planting Trees is great, should be more of it.
Just think, with access to water (using either solar-powered RO plants) or harnessing and piping the excess seasonal water in our north, Australia could be transformed (back?) into beautiful forests and rain-forests.
But the current status, that implies we can offset carbon so easily, by paying a few cents on the dollar, just screams BS to me.
The fact that number 3 above is apparently financially viable, suggests that such schemes are getting paid huge amounts (by their government) to lock up carbon. And that just doesn't gel with the apparently low price of purchasing those credits.
After all, there's an inherent problem with purchasing "nothing". There's no good, service, currency, etc, and nothing tangible actually changes hands. And unlike say derivatives, there's no corresponding debit.
One further possibility, and this truly sickens me, is that this is going to become the latest way of exploiting developing nations. Some poor family in Africa will get paid a pittance to plant trees, so that some rich schmuck in Melbourne can feel better about burning fossil fuels.