hackertube.io

The Carbon Offset Problem

Wendover Productions · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Climate policy, solutions & debateEnvironment, agriculture & food systemsMicroeconomics & behavioral economics

What it is

Wendover Productions examines why carbon offsets so often fail to reduce emissions, covering specific examples and the perverse incentives in offset schemes.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended in greenwashing and offset threads as a well-sourced, detailed explanation of how offsets underdeliver.

  • 5 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2022, last 2023

What HN commenters said

  1. “does a much better job than the article of both highlighting specific examples and laying out the perverse incentive structures”

    Specific examples and perverse incentives of carbon offsetting, with sources

    cowpig, 2022-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Carbon offsetting is just another form of greenwashing”

  2. “Excellent relevant Wendover video about carbon credits”

    Relevant video on carbon credit problems

    Aunche, 2022-06 · Recommendation · in “Where are all the crypto use cases?”

  3. “i'm taking the chance to share some content by people that present their points of view on this issue much better than i do”

    Presents concerns about offset scams better than commenter

    rmvt, 2023-02 · Recommendation · in “Vestas unveils solution to end landfill disposal for wind turbine blades”

  4. “Wendover has a very good 20 minute video on the topic”

    Covers pitfalls and non-obvious failure modes of offset schemes

    sofixa, 2023-06 · Recommendation

  5. “wendover has a nice video on it”

    Explains why offsets often do not offset any carbon

    plopz, 2023-08 · Recommendation · in “Shell Quietly Shelves a Radical Plan to Shrink Its Carbon Footprint”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: carbon credits, greenwashing, climate policy, perverse incentives, wendover

Also recommended by the same people