Travelers concerned about carbon emissions from their plane trips have been led to believe that by simply buying carbon offsets they will erase their carbon footprints. Popular offsetting programs plant trees in developing countries; the notion being that young trees absorb lots of carbon, will balance out emissions and help the developing country too. But what doesn't get talked about is what actually goes into getting the trees planted. First-worlders who assume that the third-world will benefit from new trees don't really know what happens after they buy their carbon offsets.
Plenty Magazine reports on Ugandan villagers who were brutally forced out of their villages all in the name of planting carbon offset trees:
"Early one morning in 1993, Wilson Turinawe woke up to the crack of gunfire in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Paramilitary park rangers were attacking his village. His thatched hut was set on fire. His wife grabbed their infant child and ran... Turinawe is one of 30,000 villagers who have been kicked out of their homes in Uganda’s Kibale National Park to make way for a massive, 86,000-acre tree-planting project. The trouble, Turinawe says, actually started 4,000 miles away in Europe, where businesses have been giving money to the Forest Absorbing Carbon Dioxide Emission (FACE) Foundation, a Dutch nonprofit that pays the Ugandan government to plant trees that will one day offset carbon emissions."
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The carbon offset trade is booming. But how fare is the trade?
Travelers concerned about carbon emissions from their plane trips have been led to believe that by simply buying carbon offsets they will erase their carbon footprints. Popular offsetting programs plant trees in developing countries; the notion being that young trees absorb lots of carbon, will balance out emissions and help the developing country too. But what doesn't get talked about is what actually goes into getting the trees planted. First-worlders who assume that the third-world will benefit from new trees don't really know what happens after they buy their carbon offsets. Plenty Magazine reports on Ugandan villagers who were brutally forced out of their villages all in the name of planting carbon offset trees:
