Science in Seconds - Carbon Credits

Science in Seconds Know Everything RANTS - Carbon Credits Brit Trogen: OK, say you wanted to do something bad, like, set things on fire. I'm not really into the idea, but you happen to make a lot of money doing it, so I come up with a sure-fire win-win solution: Arson points. You buy them off me, and I give you permission to go around burning whatever you want. Bulletproof, right? This is the answer the world's governments have wrangled up to deal with the environmental crisis caused by companies who are doing something bad. Only instead of setting things on fire, they're releasing harmful chemicals into our atmosphere. And instead of arson points, we sell them carbon credits. One carbon credit allows you to release one ton of carbon dioxide into the air. But since the credits come with a price, and sometimes a maximum limit or cap, companies have an incentive to reduce their carbon emissions, at least in theory. But if we're going to sell get-out-of-pollution-free cards, we should probably make them pretty secure. So, the next time hackers decide to break into the system, they won't be successful. That's 250 billion tons of CO2, if anyone's counting. And that's just one example of fraud we happened to hear about. That's the problem with arson points: you always wind up getting burnt. Courtesy of Science in Seconds – All rights reserved Only for educational/non-profit purposes. (Translators are invited to put their name here)