Issue and Opponent: The carbon offsetting model has met several criticisms. Carbon offsetting projects allow governments, companies, and individuals to invest in environmental projects around the world to balance out their carbon emissions. Originally, carbon offsetting projects were focused on planting trees, but today these projects include renewable energy schemes. The main argument against carbon offsetting schemes is that they fail to address the true problem, of carbon emissions. It is also argued that carbon offsetting gives people an easy way to buy their way out of responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions produced by their activities.
Dilemma Action: To raise awareness about the flaws of the carbon offsetting model, two activists, Christian Hunt and Alex Randall, created a website that exposed the fundamental concepts of the model. Hunt and Randall created the website called “CheatNeutral,” which offered people the opportunity to pay someone else not to cheat on their partner to neutralize their infidelity. Their project aimed to draw attention to the way companies may use the carbon offset model to pay for the right to continue emitting carbon. The CheatNeutral website attempted to make it seem acceptable to cheat on your partner the same way carbon offsetting tries to make it acceptable to carry on emitting excess carbon. In satirizing the fundamental concepts of the carbon offsetting model, the activists questioned the legitimacy of its industry.
Outcomes: While the website was able to attract a great deal of press, it is unclear, and perhaps unknowable, whether or not the action resulted in any change. However, it did raise a great deal of awareness of the flawed structure of the carbon offsetting model through its website and interviews with the activists involved.