Had a talk with a farmer who called carbon offsets 'green theater'

My cousin's husband runs a 200 acre corn and soybean operation in central Illinois. Last weekend at a family BBQ he told me that the carbon offset programs he looked into basically want him to change nothing and just pay a fee. He said real climate action means actually changing how we farm, not buying permission to keep doing the same thing. That hit me because I've been buying offsets for my flights for 2 years now and feeling good about it. Now I'm wondering if those companies are just pocketing the cash. Is there even a single offset program that actually works or are we all just fooling ourselves?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew_sanchez941mo ago

Wait can't we still enjoy our guilt-free flights though?

viola1711mo ago

andrew_sanchez94 I get what you're saying and honestly we should still be able to enjoy our guilt free flights. The carbon offset market is just getting started, it's not a scam just because one farmer in Illinois had a bad experience. Some programs are actually legit, like the ones that pay farmers to plant cover crops or switch to no-till. That stuff really does pull carbon out of the air. The problem is people expect perfection overnight. Give it time and the good programs will crowd out the bad ones.