Moral ambiguity happens everywhere.

On my sidebar, I link to a couple of different websites which sell or freely give carbon offsets. As Jon Stewart pointed out at the Academy Awards, offsets, while a good idea in theory, are problematic in practice. What constitutes an "offset?" What are we actually doing when we purchase one?

Money you pay for carbon credit goes through the offset trader to another company that uses it to engage in negative-carbon activity, such as planting trees or producing electricity using "green," carbon-free methods.

The morally conscious environmentalist has many more questions. Where is the carbon being offset? Who performs the negative-carbon activity? How do the lifestyles of our "green servants" compare to our own?

Stewart's criticism, as sharp and funny-frightening as ever, implies that carbon credits are fulfilled by child labor in foreign countries, where the standard of living is far below that of Europeans and Americans. This may be the case for some credits, but certainly not all; lower-income groups would probably lack the resources to perform methane capture and some other less well-known methods of offset.

So what's the problem? In my view, it's twofold.

1. The carbon offset industry is largely unregulated, so you may be wasting your money when you buy offsets. Likewise, offset companies, like stock brokers, don't actually do anything: they just skim a profit from your money on its way to environmentally-conscious groups. The industry and its workings, overall, have not yet proven their usefulness, and you may be better off either reducing your own emissions or donating directly to environmental nonprofits.

This makes the buyers of offsets gamblers and potential losers.

2. Are we, as Americans, so accustomed to our wealth and easy lifestyle that we intend to pass our duty as stewards of Earth to some unseen third party? The concept of buying offsets recalls a problem of reforestation to mind. As forest-treasuring nations like Japan or the United States increase the total acreage of forests within their borders, their citizens do not stop buying wood products like furniture and paper. Just as we export environmental degradation, we now export the problem of reversing it.

This makes the buyers of offsets jerks.

The world already perceives America as a nation of losers and jerks, and as such, offsets are a very American way to combat global warming. With ample accountability added to the offset system, it could get better, but better still would be a more proactive approach to emissions reduction.

America needs to step up. We can't pay other people to do it for us - not as much as we need to, particularly for the good of our souls. The article linked to in this post relates offsets to indulgences purchased from the Church to absolve sins during the Middle Ages. Let us be less corrupt, less unholy than those nobles who would barter with the worst popes in history; let us instead take responsibility upon ourselves. It's time.

Note well: the links are still there. I, being a legalize-and-regulate sort of Democrat, believe in leaving choices to people, however morally difficult those choices are. So, I leave the choice to you, as the choice will always be yours. Hallelujah free will.

Where I Live, and What I Live For.

Hello, world. My name is Erin, and I am an eighteen-year-old student of the liberal arts at Princeton University, New Jersey, United States, Earth, et cetera, et cetera. I am less than 48 hours away from the completion of my first semester work, but I am not studying for my last exam, and I am not sleeping: I am writing this. Why am I writing this?

This is important. My grade in the humanities sequence, while important, is not this important. I don't yet know my major field here, but I know two of my minor concentrations: creative writing and environmental studies. I have already established a blog devoted to the former. This blog is devoted to the latter.

There is no environmental studies major here. I've had words with Professor Wilcove, the head of the program, and he is no more pleased with this state of affairs than I am. Hopefully it will change.

My permanent address belongs to a brick house in the Mohawk Valley in Upstate New York. I have lived there all my life. The river, and the path that runs beside it, are among the things I miss most about home.

This place may explain my environmentalist leanings. Throughout my childhood, I was preoccupied with Nature in some way, shape or form: I loved to hike, I caught fish and frogs in the backyard, I wanted to be a paleontologist, a marine biologist, a nuclear engineer. I have arrived at this place from that place.

These days, I want to be a professional rabble rouser. I want to speak for my cause or causes, and be part of the next revolution in this country. It will eventually be a global revolution - in Europe it has already begun - but the next step happens here. If it does not happen here, it does not happen anywhere.

This revolution will change the dynamic of American politics and, perhaps, all of American society. It will gently, but firmly, pull power from the hands of entrenched capital, and put that power in the hands of whoever is willing to accept it. I'm not talking about a red revolution: I'm talking about a green revolution. I'm talking about efficient alternative energy - NOT corn ethanol to please Iowa caucus-goers. I'm talking about plug-in hybrid cars on a carbon-free grid. I'm talking about a Farm Bill that is fair to international competition, and that rewards growers of healthful, environmentally sound calories, not high-fructose corn syrup. I'm talking about coral reefs and tropical forests left standing, full of potential cures for AIDS and cancer. I'm talking about saving what little we have left, and remembering what we have destroyed. I'm talking about a sustainable world.

This is the next revolution: here or nowhere, now or never. I live on Earth. I live for Earth.

As for here, on this page? Here, I will do what I can to keep track of factors affecting the revolution, at home and abroad. I will try to pull you into the center of the fray, because whether or not you choose to believe it, you're already in it, trading blows with your eyes closed.

Open wide, America. As a wise man once said, The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret.