Carbon Cowboys

To set the scene for my next few posts I thought I'd bring up something I came across a few years ago:



Watching this report reminds me of a book I read in my first year of University:

Changes in the Land : Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England  by William Cronon

(Don't judge this book by its cover, some of the stuff that happened during this era is so ridiculous it almost reads likes fiction)

John Nilsson is a figurehead of carbon trading's weaknesses. Just as Native Americans were offered coral beads in exchange for their land centuries ago, Nilsson offers exploitative contracts to indigenous Amazonian people in exchange for their (now valuable) property. To make matters worse, he has even been caught admitting to plans to fell the old forest and replace it with more profitable palm oil plantations. 

It is an extreme example, and there is even an arrest warrant signed on  Nilsson in Peru, but it exemplifies the dangers of what McAfee (1998) termed 'selling nature to save it'. 

Anyway, segway over; next carbon trading!