Bill Gates on the Climate Crisis | Hacker News Reader

Bill Gates on the Climate Crisis

theguardian.com

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The moral accounting behind carbon offsets always struck me as bizarre. Wealthy people fly private jets and then buy carbon offsets, acting as if the excess carbon emissions generated by flying on private jets is utterly negated by their offsets. It's as if a serial killer were to claim that he shouldn't be judged for his sadistic crimes because of his charitable contributions.

That's a terrible analogy. CO2 is a totally fungible substance. If you add it on the left and subtract it on the right, all that matters is the final balance.

Your moral accounting is only useful for deciding who is more or less righteous.

The physical world doesn't give a damn for human morality, it only understands net changes in greenhouse gases.

Yes. But this shows the limitations of of carbon offsets. carbon is fungible, but the land destruction and resources extraction isn’t to the same degree. I guess what is the perceived goal vs actual goal of a carbon offset?

Most carbon offsetting is basically tree planting, so actually rewilding areas. Although often that's monoculture forests that aren't the greatest thing.

But you're right that it matters what we measure and what the actual goals are.

seasoned tree planter here. It’s mostly bullshit. most lots that are dedicated to ecological “reforestation “ are usually clear cut 20 years down the line. and yes generally no more than 5 species of trees are planted. Plot density is chosen based of statistical tree survival rate per land piece.

What’s interesting about the hole topic is- how small of a felid habit rehabilitation and reforestation actually is, and how much of the knowledge is currently applied in the felid today. It’s tiny. there’s one small planting company I know of, whom imply practices like planting pieces immediately after logging. roots, mycelium, and soil bacteria is still thriving. Opposed to say planting the same piece 5-10-20 years after.

logging, and mining could actually be fairly “sustainable” if the right management practices are put in place.

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