The Fraudulent Carbon Offset Market

Another positively greewaldian title for the post, but the news warrants it. One of the prime most holy indulgences carbon offsets pushed by the true believers from the First Church of the Presumptuous Assumption is the planting of trees to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Tree planting is touted with religious fervor by the disciples of Pope Goreus I and, in fact, are pimped by Gorezilla himself.

But tree planting doesn't really help at all. It works a little only if sufficient water and nutrients are available. But it is very, very unreliable – unless even more damage is done to the environment.

These differences are key since the weather isn't always cooperative with human needs—if a drought takes hold, trees won't be able to do much in the way of carbon storage.

"If water availability decreases at the same time that carbon dioxide increases, then we might not have a net gain in carbon sequestration," Oren said.

Fertilizing forests to spur more carbon dioxide uptake is impractical, Oren added, because of the ramifications to the local environment and water supply.

"In order to actually have an effect on the atmospheric concentration of CO₂, the results suggest a future need to fertilize vast areas," Oren said. "And the impact on water quality of fertilizing large areas will be intolerable to society. Water is already a scarce resource."

The results of the study, presented yesterday at a national meeting of the Ecological Society of America, also noted that only a few parts of a tree will store carbon for long periods of time.

"Carbon that's in foliage is going to last a lot shorter time than carbon in the wood, because leaves decay quickly," said Duke graduate student and project member Heather McCarthy. "So elevated CO₂ could significantly increase the production of foliage, but this would lead to only a very small increase in ecosystem carbon storage."

I've said it before: it has never been easier to rape the planet or fleece its inhabitants. Just say your doing whatever in order to offset global warming and you have a license to destroy the earth – or rip people off.