If you've ever wanted to behave even a little bit like a major corporation, now is your chance to enjoy the practice of carbon offset trading, via General Electric's new Earth Rewards® card. Instead of frequent flyer miles you can earn $1 in carbon offsets for every $100 you spend, which GE will purchase on your behalf annually on Earth Day.
How much impact can your carbon offset spending have at this low rate? According to GE, "Spend $750 on your Earth Rewards Card every month and you can completely offset the 10 metric tonnes of direct emissions the average American is likely to produce in a year from travel and home energy use."
The Earth Rewards homepage, unsurprisingly, spends a lot of real esate recommending that you purchase GE products like EnergyStar dishwashers and Compact Fluorescent light bulbs to earn those points.
There is something about carbon offsets in general that strikes us as being a lot like the Medieval practice of buying indulgences--or sin offset credits--from the church. Does the ability to buy "forgiveness" merely postpone the need for changing the polluting behavior, or is is carbon emissions trading an instance of environmental realpolitik, a pragmatic means to an end?
Here's what Building Green reader Tom blogged about carbon credits earlier this week: "Through the efficiency of the free-market we now have a shot at actually improving the environmental impact of our products and services AND making profit along the way. It may be the first time in recent history that the interests of environmentalists and capitalists have aligned to create positive change." Tom is with The Sustainable Group, which offers carbon reduction consulting services to individuals and businesses.
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Why don't I believe them?
Does GE consider nuclear power to be "green." If you're buying this credit card, are you actually supporting the development of nuclear power plants around the globe? I don't want to suggest that there is anything sinister going on here, but this is GE afterall.
Going Green Means Green Bucks
There's a green trend going on in which companies are capitalizing on a popular culture phenomenon revolving around another phenomenon called global warming. Whether or not the latter is natural or influenced by human activity is beside the point of going green for many companies. There's still the bottom line to consider, and this is money. What's happening around us is a good example of how economics takes precedence over the needs of the environment. Economics caters to the needs and wants of people. If companies truly want to go green---and I mean "grass green" this time, they should allow all decisions to be driven by what nature wants for a change. But they wouldn't want to do that, of course---at least not without any reasonable financial os strategic returns.
Still, I think what many companies are doing these days in going green are helping make people aware that there are things that we do that are not good for the Earth and that it is us that suffer in the end. Maybe there's still time for change.
Here's something from TheNewsRoom on how American Electric Power (AEP) aims to support the largest agricultural carbon offset program in the United States: http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/406098?c_id=wom-bc-ar
I'm writing in from TheScienceDesk at TheNewsRoom. We have a group of people interested in global warming who have already found great content from us. You may be interested as well in finding out how TheNewsRoom can be your trusted partner when it comes to great content. Email jtowns@voxant.com for details. We'll be happy to hear from you.
- Alvin from TheScienceDesk at TheNewsRoom.com