By Chris Lang “Offsets are an imaginary commodity created by deducting what you hope happens from what you guess would have happened.” That’s Dan Welch writing in the magazine Ethical Consumer in 2007.
Category: USA
Coronavirus notes #3: The US bailout of its airline companies is “insane”
By Chris Lang At the end of March 2020, Donald Trump signed the US government’s US$2.2 trillion bailout into law, after it was unanimously passed in the Senate. Otherwise known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economy Security Act (“CARES Act”) the bailout includes generous grants and loans to the aviation industry.
Coronavirus notes #2: Masks for all. And basic income for all
By Chris Lang Do not go out and try to buy a face mask after reading this. Do stay at home and make one. (Here’s the Masks4All website, with lots more information, including how to make a mask.) Wear your mask if you need to go out, to buy food, for example, or to travel…
Microsoft’s climate bullshit
By Chris Lang Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that by 2030 it would remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits. The company aims to do so by using negative emission technologies, including tree planting, soil carbon sequestration, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCs), and direct air capture.
Coronavirus notes #1: The magic money tree and universal basic income
By Chris Lang This post is the first in an occasional REDD-Monitor series collecting together some thoughts around the coronavirus crisis. Forests, deforestation and the climate crisis may seem distant problems when we’re all facing the threat of a deadly virus. But when the coronavirus crisis is back under control at some point in the…