Carbon offsets reflect the tendency of environmentalism to act like a new religion. Remember European history about the buying and selling of indulgences? But there can be good sense in donating to atone for our offenses against the environment.
By Anthony B. Robinson | Crosscut.com | February 5, 2010
Carbon offsets: If you fly, must you buy? Airplanes landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport (Photo: Magnus Baeck/via Wikimedia Commons)
The other day I, half-joking, told a Canadian friend who is a United Church of Canada pastor that I needed to do penance for all the air travel I am doing for work. He fired back an email with a new United Church of Canada-connected web site that would allow me to calculate my carbon footprint and make a donation to offset it. My donation would help fund the “greening of the buildings of different faith communities.”
Actually, I liked the idea and the website, and was heartened to see that driving my Honda Insight (hybrid) for the last 10 years, a car that still gets 55 miles a gallon, helped balance out my sins as a frequent flyer.
But the Protestant in me did find myself wondering if this were some sort of new system of indulgences. Remember indulgences? It was abuse of the system of indulgences within the Catholic Church that was a spur to the Protestant Reformation some 500 years ago. The wealthy could buy their way into heaven, or into the good graces of the church hierarchy, or both, depending on your view. Martin Luther thought it tacky.