Credit rating?

[unixronin]

So, about those carbon offset credits....

Customers of British Airways are among those who have been encouraged to log on to Climate Care’s website and calculate how many tonnes of greenhouse gases their flights will generate, and how much it will cost to neutralise the impact on the atmosphere.  A flight to Barbados for a family of four, for example, generates 7.55 tonnes of carbon dioxide, which will cost them £56.64 to offset.

Climate Care uses the money to help persuade families such as Sarju’s to give up labour-saving diesel pumps and buy human-powered treadles instead.  It claims that by using the treadle, a family will save money on diesel and hire charges, earn more from increased crops and cut the carbon emissions that would have been produced by the pump.

Last week Indian experts criticised the scheme, saying it was promoting child labour and forcing poor farmers to work harder so that wealthy air travellers could enjoy exotic holidays without worrying about the environment.

“The problem is the number of times child labour is involved,” claimed Ashutosh Pandey of Emergent Ventures India, which advises companies on clean technology.

“It’s not being monitored properly.  It’s not reducing emissions.  People are selling their diesel pumps to others who are using them.”

Sunita Narain, an environmentalist at the Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi think tank, said: “It won’t help global warming if people take more flights to the Seychelles.”

Michael Buick, a spokesman for the Oxford-based Climate Care, confirmed that children were working the pumps it promotes, but said that people had to focus on the benefits to the whole family.

He said his group was proud of its scheme, which had led to more than half a million foot treadles being sold, and had won several awards. Four reports had identified major benefits.

OK, so now I have to ask:  Who exactly is selling all those treadles?  And can anyone, really, sell treadle-powered pumps sized to be usable by a six-year-old, and somehow pretend that they didn't know child labor was going to be involved?

Comments

Progress!

[unix-jedi.livejournal.com]

Hey, it used to be "Think of the CHILLLLRRRRUN!!!!!"

Now it's "Don't mind the chilllrrrun! They needed the exercise!"

Progress, of a fashion...

[unix-jedi.livejournal.com]

This thread is useless without pictures...

http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/idei
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/get_real_with_t_1.php

(The lovely wife (http://nauticaldawn.blogspot.com) drew a blank initially on what a "Treadle" would look like.)

I'm certain that after 6-8 hours of stair-mastering the young children will be very encouraged to go to school and learn. Well, if they were able to walk to school. Or if it weren't over. Or if they weren't asleep.

[danjite.livejournal.com]

You know, by know, how I feel about malinformed first worlders messing about in the third world.

But, of course, their logic is flawed, their reasoning fallacious.

The diesel pump likely has a smaller carbon footprint than the food and resources necessary to power the child for equivalent pump value.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Particularly when the net result is to move the diesel pump to a different farm.

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

And not to mention that ground vehicles (cars, trucks) are a vastly larger contributor of "carbon emissions" than airlines.

[house-pundit.livejournal.com]

Dear gods. Someone has finally figured out how to use frenetic toddler energy to power the world.