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An (Even More) Inconvenient Truth
Why Carbon Credits For Forest Preservation May Be Worse Than Nothing
Song, Lisa http://features.propublica.org/brazil-carbon-offests/inconvenient-truth-carbon-credits-dont-work-deforestation-redd-acre-cambodia/
Publisher: ProPublica
Date Written: 22/05/2019
Year Published: 2019
Resource Type: Article
Article exploring of limitations of carbon credits
Abstract:
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Excerpt
Think of trees as "hiding the carbon for awhile," said Abigail Swann, an ecology professor at the University of Washington. Carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for about 100 years. So forest offsets only work if the trees remain intact for a century.
In that sense, offests are like the world's most forgiving credit card: The buyer gets all the benefit upfront, while it takes a century for the fulll debt to be repaid.
Proponents told me that even a half-century or a few decades could make a big difference. To them, forest offsets are about buying time for society to figure out how to power the world without fossil fuels. But I'd read about projects that sod credits, only to have trees cut down soon after.
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