To the Editor,
Re: City signs on to make cuts to emissions, July 31.
News that the Regional District of Nanaimo and the City of Nanaimo are talking of buying carbon offsets brings the question, what is a carbon offset?
Carbon offsets are a way of continuing to pollute while ignoring the obvious solution – conservation.
We will feel less guilty thinking our level of pollution can continue because we bought offsets, but the reality is that to plant trees to offset carbon emissions is deluded.
First, huge tracts of forests have been logged to the point beyond sustainability, reducing the huge amount of carbon absorbed by these once mighty forests to a mere fraction of what once was.
Second, how can it be possible to use the argument that planting trees will absorb more carbon than the original forests did while still continuing to pollute.
The simple answer is to reduce and reuse the resources and conserve what we have left.
Is it necessary for the RDN and the city to continue in the same old way of consumption when there are so many options available today to conserve?
Carbon offsets only benefit those who market such schemes while raking in huge profits.
The collective guilt trip will be placated, especially for managers and those politicians who will ultimately approve such hair-brained schemes while we all blindly go along paying more and more taxes to keep our collective dysfunctional, unsustainable system going.
John Dunn
Nanaimo
