Pirate's Cove

The Australian, in an article entitled Mind the gap on climate (I was hoping for a moment that they’d do what the Chive does. Alas, no), tells us exactly how much people will willingly pay to offset their carbon lifestyles

SOMETIMES the most quotidian matters tell a story. Here’s one about the deep disconnect between the political class – the politicians, the activists, the Hollywood stars and the feel-gooders who are imploring us to “SAY YES” to a carbon tax – and the rest of us.

You go online to buy an airline ticket. Say it’s Jetstar. You choose your flights, fill in the passenger and contact details, answer some more questions, then you are given this option: “Help reduce your climate change impact by offsetting the carbon emissions (CO2) from your flight for just $1.96.” The airline tells you all its carbon offsets are independently accredited, its program is certified under the government’s National Carbon Offset Standard Carbon Neutral initiative, that the airline passes on all funds and does not profit from this purchase. Sounds like a small, low-cost way to help reduce emissions?

As at January this year, 88 per cent of people said no thanks to paying less than $2 to offset carbon from their Jetstar flight. When buying a ticket on a Qantas plane, only 8 per cent of online flyers consciously ticked the “yes, offset flights” button to pay $1.82. By May this year, that figure had dropped to 7 per cent.

Either the majority of Warmists are refusing to fly nowadays (doubtful), or, they just, shockingly, expect everyone else to pony up. I’ll go with the latter explanation, since Liberals always expect Someone Else to Give Back/Share The Burden. Also, it’s typical of Warmists to fail to Walk the Talk.

Make sure to read the whole thing.