Fearful about your carbon emissions? Don’t stress! You’ll be able to pump out as a lot as you need — so long as you purchase some offsets to stability it out. Frightened of the collapse of wildlife? No drawback! We will determine how a lot cash our ecosystems are price, and let the market do the remainder!
Welcome to the logic of inexperienced capitalism. Fossil gas giants declare to rejoice sustainability whereas pumping out poisonous emissions. Governments are counting on carbon offsets to make their local weather guarantees add up. And we’re informed that we are able to battle the local weather disaster with the magic of financial markets.
Why have firms bought so curious about sustainability? Will carbon offsets save us — or are they only a cute accounting trick? And if wind and photo voltaic power are so low-cost, why haven’t we embraced them?
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Adrienne Buller, writer of The Worth of a Whale: On the illusions of inexperienced capitalism, and Brett Christophers, writer of The Worth is Unsuitable: Why capitalism received’t save the planet.
Music by Serge Quadrado, used beneath Inventive Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
