With additional news exposing the Pope of Green, I've decided to write about the relation of buying carbon offsets to the papal indulgences of the sixteenth century.
The Popes authorized the sale of indulgences to fund the cathedrals and other projects in Rome. By buying an indulgence one could reduce the amount of punishment for one's sins, or one's deceased relatives’ sins (by reducing one's time in purgatory). By the sixteenth century many unscrupulous indulgence sellers preyed upon the ignorant and poor. Perhaps the most famous was Johann Teztel, to whom the lyric, ‘As a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs,’ is attributed. Some cynical fellow mocked the phrase with ‘Put a penny in the pitcher, and the Pope gets all the richer.’ In the Reformation, Martin Luther argued that true repentance is preferred over the selling of indulgences, and the purpose of good works is not to better ourselves or our relation with God but is to be directed toward our neighbours.
Likewise, in our day, individuals (and corporations) may buy carbon offsets to balance out their pollution. A vast storehouse filled with the merit of environmentally virtuous companies is available for those of us who pollute the earth. Disregarding how this merit is obtained, does this not encourage an easy solution to polluting entities? No longer is careful (and difficult) stewardship required, but our environmental sin is absolved with the stroke of a pen. The purchaser of the carbon credit is no longer required to live environmentally responsibly but may use the supererogatory works of the more pollution-responsible entities. If Johann Tetzel were alive today would he write:
As the carbon offset is traded, Air and water around are cleansèd.
and receive such response:
Carbon trading on the market makes a profitable racket.
(Well, I'm not going to win any prizes for poetry.)
