"Human Energy?" Try "Exploitation of the Poor."

What a surprise - yet another carbon offsetting program turns out to be a sham. The U.K.'s largest carbon offsetting company, Climate Care, is apparently offsetting CO2 expenditures by suing the same sham tactics exposed by others: they pay the poor to use backbreaking manual labor instead of diesel power, plant trees already set to be planted, and upgrade stoves already set to be upgraded.

It should come to no one's surprise that the carbon offsetting programs largely consist of exploiting the poor so that the rich can feel good about their excesses. Why bother taking a crowded commercial flight when you can fly a private jet and pay some poor Indian villager to engage in backbreaking labor instead of using a more efficient diesel engine?

The most strikingly abhorrent issue with the whole project is definitely the use of manual pumps, "human energy" in Climate Care's terminology, is that instead of running a diesel pump for a couple of hours a month, these individuals are spending several hours a day on manual pumps - time which could be spent with one's family, educating oneself, learning new skills, or planting more fields. In short, "human energy" is sapping the poor's ability to live a more worthwhile life and to work their way up from poverty.

But, hey, as long as the rich, liberal elites can fly on a private jet across the world for a ridiculous publicity stunt instead of flying commercial or - god forbid - skipping the trip altogether, I guess it's all worthwhile.

To cancel out the Co2 of a return flight to India, it will take one poor villager three years of pumping water by foot. So is carbon offsetting the best way to ease your conscience?
The London Times

When David Cameron flew to India to open a JCB factory for a party donor, green-thinking supporters could rest assured that his visit would be carbon neutral. "We are offsetting all our emissions through Climate Care," the Tory leader wrote on his blog. "As well as planting trees, they also invest in renewable energy projects in the developing world."

Somewhere in the Indian countryside, a farmer is about to repay Mr. Cameron's debt to the planet. Climate Care's latest enterprise is to provide "treadle pumps" to poor rural families so they can get water on to their land without using diesel power. The pumps are worked on by stepping on pedals. If a peasant treads for two hours a day, it will take at least three years to offset the CO2 from Mr. Cameron's return flight to India.

Climate Care, whose clients include the Prince of Wales, is the leading brand in the fast-expanding but unregulated field of offsetting, in which consumers pay to make good the energy they emit through travel or heating. Those businesses claim that they can negate pollution by planting trees or by paying for renewable power such as windmills or hydroelectrics.

Climate Care says that it has offset a million tonnes of carbon since it was founded ten years ago. It has just made the claim that it will sell enough offsets to neutralise 1 per cent of carbon emissions in Britain next year. But it was targeted last week by activists dressed as "red herrings", who delivered fish to its Oxford premises. "Climate Care are misleading the public, making them believe that offsetting does some good," said Joss Garman, a protester. "It's like being a member of the RSPCA then going home and kicking a dog."