Indulgences

This was a good week for hypocrisy: Al Gore's carbon footprint is 10 times the U.S. average and Prince Charles hawks a pasty unhealthier than the Big Macs he wants to ban.

While the royal family has yet to explain why unhealthy, expensive traditional English food is good for the country while unhealthy, cheap American food is bad for it, the Gore's have quickly moved to explain why their 221 MWH: they purchase "carbon offsets", paying twice for their extravagance in order to subsidize more environmentally-friendly power sources. Blogger Bill Hobbs (hat tip to James Taranto) points out that not all is as it seems: Gore runs the company he's buying carbon offsets from.

But this is not really an argument about profit or payment - it's about the future of the earth. If global warming really is a threat, it's worth it to turn off the AC. Al Gore is the world's primary spokesman for the threat of global warming, and if it is not worth it to him personally to curtail his lifestyle, how can he ask his disciples to do so?

Of course, the hypocrisy of the leader does not negate the validity of the movement. Carbon offsets and other market-based environmental reforms are a very good idea, especially when contrasted to the command-economy alternatives. Fully implemented, offsets put a price on the externalities imposed on society by carbon users. Of course, the current carbon offsets are just indulgences for a guilty conscience: since they are not fully implemented, they have no effect on the externalities, and instead function as a consumer good. You can purchase a clean conscience through Generation Investment Management for a few dollars per metric ton of CO2 If the Gore's really cared about the environment, they would curtail their energy use but keep buying the indulgences: then they might even be a net benefit to the environment!

For citizens, there's an alternative way to preserve the environment: live conservatively. As Tree Hugger reports (again, hat tip to Taranto) there is a U.S. politician who maintains a low impact on his land. But you won't find President Bush trumpeting his conservationism.