Please do not sponsor this tree

"This may seem a strange plea for environmentalists to make, but they do so sincerely. Not because sponsoring a tree is in and of itself a terrible thing to do – what activists are really concerned about is that people sponsor trees and windmills and light bulbs for the wrong reasons. The marketing hype from carbon ‘offset’ companies tries to get us to part with our money for what appears to be a noble cause. They appeal to the charitable impulses of their clientele or the image conscious drives of the corporate sector.

"Their sales pitch is reminiscent of the controversial child sponsorship schemes of the early 1980s, when some charities’ campaigns suggested that all one needed to do to prevent hunger and disease was ‘sponsor a child’ and everything would be OK. Don’t worry about analysing the real reasons for child poverty in the South and what really needs to be done to solve it, (or what the real reasons for climate change are and what really needs to be done to solve it). Don’t look at the economic policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, unfair trade, corporate plunder of the world’s resources, Northern over-consumption and global inequality. No, just sponsor this child in Guatemala (this lighting project in Kazakhstan) and ease your conscience ..."
New Internationalist

Tagged: environment, activism, global+warming, climate+change