Monitoring carbon offset reforestation projects

In theory, carbon offsets are an eloquent and effective solution. If a plane emits a pound of carbon dioxide and a preserved acre of forest sucks up a pound of carbon dioxide, from an environmental standpoint it’s a wash. In practice, though, offsets have had an inconsistent record. For offsets to work, they must satisfy three requirements: additio

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Carbon offsets do not do what they promise, which is offset. But even if they did, you cannot use lifestyle or credits as an offset when you are actively building a system that does harm. Even if you, personally, come out more or less even on the books- to do so is to loan your power to a worldview that has doubled down on worth being tied to compl... See more

The negative consequences of forcing the forests to become legible to their planners didn’t become obvious until after second rotation of trees to be planted, about a century later. This is important to note: the first-order effects, what happens right away, are often beneficial; it’s the second and third-order effects of forcing legibility onto an... See more