J. Waggle wrote:
>The trend, (because of its public relations appeal) is prompting
>celebrates such as Arnold Schwarzenegger to purchase carbon offsets (in
>Arnolds case in the form of planting of trees) to offset the carbon
>emissions caused by his private jet and Hummer. 

* Maybe he should plant trees AND get rid of the Hummer. 

> The Boston Globe found more than 60 websites that sell offsets to US
consumers, but there is no government oversight of these sites, nor is there
a uniform standard for what constitutes a legitimate offset. Some websites
provide scant information about the criteria they use to pick projects and
how much they charge for overhead, making it difficult for consumers to sort
out effective offsets from projects that have little true environmental value. 

> "Because there is no one standard in the voluntary market, the offsets
being sold to people are often like money made with your own Xerox machine,"
said Seth Kaplan, senior attorney for the Boston-based Conservation Law
Foundation. "People can't be sure if what they are buying has any value."

> "It really is anything goes," says Anja Kollmuss, outreach coordinator for
the Tufts University Climate Initiative.

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