Al Gore maintains that, despite his voracious appetite for energy, he’s still an eco-saint because he’s purchased a plenary indulgence in the form of carbon offsets. Lots of people are making fun of him for this, but I think it’s great: It must mean that all we need to fight global warming are more trees (and in North America, that’s the way the trendline is pointing anyway). Anyone who buys into carbon offsets must admit that Kyoto and other draconian regulations are completely unnecessary — unless the goal of reducing carbon dioxide secondary to the goal of hamstringing American capitalism.
