Green this and green that

When it comes to the ‘green’ movement, economics is the tells the truth. I really am getting tired of green washing and the whole airy fairy marketing aspects of “going green”. People are ignorant and confused. However, what is effective and what is making consumers change behaviours are price signals. The fact that gasoline is likely to exceed $1.50 a litre this summer will certainly have an impact on consumer behaviour. When people respond by modifying driving habits (driving less, driving more efficiently, finding alternative means of transportaion) will it be considered going green?

“One Simple Act” is the latest green marketing effort from the Alberta Government on encourageing people to become more environmentally aware and consider being more energy efficient.  The cynical aspect is to look at the propgram and see that a politican’s ’act’ is to plant a tree or ride a bike to work while a new oilsands project is approved despite uncertainties on emissons impacts and fresh water requirements. I guess every little bit helps, but scale source scale of enironmental problem cannot be ignored. Where are efforts spent most effective?

 

 

Offsets – potential of public forests in AB??

Today I plan to enhance my understanding of Alberta’s potential for devloping a forest carbon offset protocol. Many issues prevail including ownership of carbon rights, permanence, issurance, market size, etc. Can a well developed protocol address these issues?