I recently had to the opportunity to be locked in an internet free location for a day or two which resulted in a lot more thinking than i would admit to.  A few thoughts came thru that were directly related to this blog and the Carbon Offsets business that i run.

First i’ve been worried about this “collapse” of the financial system due to bad mortgages for years and while i imagined this would happen, i guess i never believed it would get this bad, let alone the possibility that it could become even worse. 

Much as we’ve seen in the commodities market recently, there has sharp drop in carbon offset prices.  In the US carbon offset markets, these offsets have dropped in price from about $2.25 a ton in january to about $1.80 today.  That doesn’t sound too surprising or devastating, until i mention that during that time the price peaked at just under $7.50 a ton during the months in between.   While i’m sure this affects many carbon offsetters, we’re small enough and new enough that we can only benefit by these reduced cost of offsets.  The real story here isn’t the cost of the offsets, or the reason for the great swings in value. 

The real story is that Global Warming was controlling the mindspace of American consumers and voters in January and February and is all but an afterthought today.  The shift in society’s focus away from global warming to “Drill, Drill, Drill” (thank you larry kudlow) was prompted, not surprisingly by oil skyrocketing over $100 a barrel right to $150.  Nobody who is trying to afford the SUV they drive to work, doesn’t care about the earth getting hotter, because the night sweats are increasingly chilled as we worry about keeping our jobs, homes and feeding our families.  Unfortunately, much like the entreprenuers who burn the forest of brasil to grow soybeans, our thoughts toward the future have focused on the next few weeks instead of the next 10-20 years.  Until that focus shifts, complicated/abstract ideas like carbon offsets, will be of less interest than green actions that help to save money.  The next few years green needs to focus on helping the family budget to help change the world.