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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: SCB'S INVESTMENT IN CARBON OFFSETS

Dear Editor,

One thing that has been going through my mind since reading "SCB's investment in carbon offsets: frequently asked questions about the Baviaanskloof Megareserve Project, South Africa" in our November 2007 newsletter (volume 14, issue 4) is Paul Beier's statement, "it is appropriate that climate change is SCB's number one policy priority" (page 13). But is it appropriate?

If we focus our energies on climate change but ignore economic growth, the economy will continue to appropriate, degrade, and even liquidate more and more ecosystems, which not only puts humanity in jeopardy from the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services but also exacerbates climate change further from the reduced capacity for ecosystem carbon sequestration.

Whereas, if we focus on economic growth and the instigation of a steady state economic model, then we not only reduce per capita consumption and population growth but we stop the onslaught of the destruction of our global ecosystems and biodiversity, which helps us better control climate change through the ecosystems' abilities to sequester carbon dioxide.

In other words, a focus on economic growth can address the climate change problem in a positive way. However, a focus on climate change will not likely affect economic growth, the real cause of our environmental dilemma, and will very much reduce the chances of dealing with climate change, as well.

From my perspective, the root cause of climate change is our perennial demand for economic growth, and that should be SCB's number one policy priority.

Neil K. Dawe
Parksville, British Columbia, Canada

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