Thread by @DrEricDing

CARBON CHEATING—Climate offsets are basically a way to cheat with carbon pollution. Big corporations and fossil fuel industry use “net-zero" arguments to get away with pollution. Don’t fall for it. Watch and read🧵

HT @ClimateAd @ClimateHuman

2) The world has by and large adopted “net zero by 2050” as its de facto climate goal, but two fatal flaws hide in plain sight within those 16 characters. One is “net zero.” The other is “by 2050”.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

3) These two flaws provide cover for big oil and politicians who wish to preserve the status quo. Together they comprise a deadly prescription for inaction and catastrophically high levels of irreversible climate and ecological breakdown.

4) buying “infidelity offsets”… would not fly. Neither should carbon offsets.

5) “Fixating on ‘net zero’ means betting the future of life on Earth that someone will invent some kind of whiz-bang tech to draw down CO2” says climate expert @ClimateHuman

6) Pathways for achieving net zero by 2050 – meaning that in 2050 any carbon emissions would be balanced by CO2 withdrawn through natural means and through hypothetical carbon-trapping technology – are designed to give roughly even odds for keeping global heating below 1.5C.

7) But it’s now apparent that even the current 1.1C of global heating is not a “safe” level… The fact that climate models failed to predict the intensity of the summer’s heatwaves and flooding suggests that severe impacts will come sooner than previously thought.