[Terrapreta] Fwd: Fwd: Global Carbon Cycle

[lou gold]

Hello Kevin,


Can you see any way to show clearly that the Carbon Credits Movement is
> something other than a money maker for its promoters?



I'm not completely sure that I get the drift of your question. Is it that
you feel that developing areas don't compellingly deserve to be rewarded for
not following the same destructive path that the developed world followed?

Here is an example: Brazil proposed that countries should receive carbon
credits for not cutting forests. The reaction was, "why should we want to
pay a country not to be destructive." The Brazilian Minister responded, "The
correct question is why would you NOT want to?" So, yes, in this sense the
carbon credits movement is supposed make money for its promoters AND
therefore contribute to practices that would benefit the entire global
community. In other words, it is promoted as a wise investment.

If you mean by "promoters" the army of middlemen who mediate the market, the
answer is that's how modern economies work, full of contradictions and leaks
and siphons just like everything else. If it's not a market but public
programs (with their power to distribute and redistribute) I certainly would
want to see subsidies to peasant farmers as well as to agri-business
mega-corporations. Carbon credit economics might be a way. Taxes and
subsidies might be a way. Yes, there will be all the mistakes, scandals and
frauds that come along with development of any kind. The virtue is found in
the direction of the energy -- such as toward terra preta.
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