Trees are terrific in every way but one: they make lousy carbon offsets...

...That was the point of the "First rule of carbon offsets." But a number of comments and some media queries have led me include two rare exceptions: certified urban trees and certified tropical forest preservation. The word "certified" is key in both cases.

From Grist
HT: DeSmogblog

Regular readers of CI know that I don't think much of the idea of using trees as a sequestration method. There are many reasons but the one that really struck me was "How do you keep the carbon from being re-released by fire or rot?"

Warning: hectoring ahead!

Instead of Buying Carbon Offsets...

...Buy a family in Africa a flashlight.

Yesterday Climateer Investing got a mention at Peak Energy and at the WSJ.com Energy Roundup and I thought I should take the opportunity to republish one of the more important stories in our bookmarks. I had to rummage around in the CI link-vault last night and missed some of the traffic but found it; from the New York Times:

Solar Flashlight Lets Africa’s Sun Deliver the Luxury of Light to the Poorest Villages

You'll cut some carbon use, bypass the corrupt bastards at the United Nations Development Program
(besides the fraud, waste and abuse; less than 1% of the Clean Development Mechanism money is going to Africa. Then the arrogant UNocrat bastard poseurs make Zimbabwe the head of the Commission on Sustainable Development).

and you will quite possibly change lives. Click on the "Instead of..." link. It's a good story.

For a really bad story, you've probably heard that inflation in Zimbabwe is running at 4500%. It's actually about 20,000% annualized. From Mugabe Makaipa:

"A cabinet-level task force on price controls ordered factories and sellers to cut the prices of certain basic goods and services by as much as 50 percent — to levels that existed roughly one week ago."

You read that right. Mugabe ordered shopkeepers to sell food below cost. Any idea what that does to food availability?
And the U.N. made them head of the Commission on Sustainable Development.