Is All CO2 Equal? - Part 6 revisited

I wanted to respond to Tom Arnold’s comment to my last entry in a new post as opposed to a comment, as I thought it had some important points that I wanted to bring out. First, I was clearly making a generalization, and like all generalization this one has some counterexamples. It was unfortunate that I picked on a blog post from Terrapass, as they are, in mind, the most prominent counter to many of the issues I see with carbon offsets. So I wanted to state publicly, that Tom is absolutely right, and that my statements do not apply to all carbon offset providers. Second, although I agree that Terrapass suggests that you do other things, the rhetoric of carbon offsets is that of being the total solution. “Go Zero” “Eliminate your carbon footprint” “Carbon neutral” “Undo your contribution to global warming”. Finally, on the response to the challenge question, I agree there are differences between companies and individuals, individuals still finance most large items and both have finite budgets and have to make tradeoffs. $40K solar cells may only be an option for corporations or the well-to-do, but upgrading to greener grid energy or buying a more efficient air conditioner aren’t. So I believe there is are legitimate consumer versions of the question as well.