This from the UK: the Sept. 3, 2007 online column Sp!ked scores some telling points on the issue of carbon-offsetting and economic development. Though author Brendan O’Neill uses the term ‘rich snots’ to describe the feel-good tactics of the ‘carbon-offsetters,’ specifically targeting David Cameron, leader of the UK Conservative Party, O’Neill is clearly not anti-wealth or anti-capital. In other words, he’s not looking for the playing field to be leveled at the mud hut standard of living.
As for the results of the carbon-offset practice, O’Neill at one point comments on the ecologically-preferred low-carbon sources of power with “What might have once been referred to as ‘back-breaking labour’ is now spun as ‘human energy.’ ” It’s (in this case Indian sub-continent) eco-enslavement, according to O’Neill. Good read.
