<story><title>Study: Carbon offsets aren’t doing their job, overstate impact</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/08/study-carbon-offsets-arent-doing-their-job-overstate-impact/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SamBam</author><text>If you had $5000 that you wanted to use to fight climate change, and you wanted to have it have a bigger multiplying effect than your own personal consumption (install heat pumps, get electric car, etc.), where &lt;i&gt;would&lt;/i&gt; you put that, given that most carbon credits seem to be scams?&lt;p&gt;That is, what&amp;#x27;s the least-scammy carbon credit, and&amp;#x2F;or place of concrete change?&lt;p&gt;Places I donate to, but wonder how much the effect of each is:&lt;p&gt;* Climate charities focused on legislation (EarthJustice, Clean Air Task Force, EDF, NRDC)&lt;p&gt;* Direct CO2 removal (Climeworks). Seems like a drop in the bucket, but feel like this tech needs to grow.&lt;p&gt;* Goldstandard.org Carbon Credits. May be just as scammy, but appears to be direct gifts to green energy projects in developing world. (Of course, maybe they would have gotten the money anyway.)&lt;p&gt;What are other people&amp;#x27;s thoughts?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Tiktaalik</author><text>In the realm of political donations, municipal politics is so often forgotten about, but is in control of some of the lowest hanging fruit for carbon reduction in cities.&lt;p&gt;Almost the entirety of carbon emissions in cities comes from 1) home heating and 2) transportation, both of which could be significantly impacted by city policy from environmentalist municipal politicians.&lt;p&gt;For example:&lt;p&gt;* separated bike lanes (incredibly cheap in the grand scheme of things)&lt;p&gt;* pedestrianization of public spaces&lt;p&gt;* legalizing relatively denser apartment buildings everywhere.&lt;p&gt;* public transit improvements&lt;p&gt;All work to take CO2 emitting cars off the road&lt;p&gt;Political movement toward bans on gas for home heating (already occurring in many places) a further way to reduce CO2 emissions.</text></comment>
<story><title>Study: Carbon offsets aren’t doing their job, overstate impact</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/08/study-carbon-offsets-arent-doing-their-job-overstate-impact/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>SamBam</author><text>If you had $5000 that you wanted to use to fight climate change, and you wanted to have it have a bigger multiplying effect than your own personal consumption (install heat pumps, get electric car, etc.), where &lt;i&gt;would&lt;/i&gt; you put that, given that most carbon credits seem to be scams?&lt;p&gt;That is, what&amp;#x27;s the least-scammy carbon credit, and&amp;#x2F;or place of concrete change?&lt;p&gt;Places I donate to, but wonder how much the effect of each is:&lt;p&gt;* Climate charities focused on legislation (EarthJustice, Clean Air Task Force, EDF, NRDC)&lt;p&gt;* Direct CO2 removal (Climeworks). Seems like a drop in the bucket, but feel like this tech needs to grow.&lt;p&gt;* Goldstandard.org Carbon Credits. May be just as scammy, but appears to be direct gifts to green energy projects in developing world. (Of course, maybe they would have gotten the money anyway.)&lt;p&gt;What are other people&amp;#x27;s thoughts?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>VintageCool</author><text>Donate to aspiring Democrats running for state legislatures in blues states with red State Legislatures or split governments.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Back in 2019, [David Roberts] wrote for Vox that there is one weird trick states can use to ensure good climate and energy policy. That trick is: giving Democrats full control of the government. It has worked in California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, Massachusetts, New York, Hawaii — the list goes on.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The 2022 midterm elections brought Democrats full control — with trifectas of both houses of the legislature and the governor&amp;#x27;s office — in four new M states: Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Minnesota.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Does the one weird trick still work? Well, you’ll never guess what happened in Minnesota last week.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.volts.wtf&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;minnesota-sets-out-for-net-zero-emissions#details&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.volts.wtf&amp;#x2F;p&amp;#x2F;minnesota-sets-out-for-net-zero-emis...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>