Joseph Priestly kept his CO2 in a bottle!

From an Essay by Ivy Main, Power for the People, July 20, 2023

In medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic church encouraged sinners to get square with God by performing good works and acts of charity. Since both of these might require spending money, some resourceful church leaders streamlined the process, taking the money and letting the good works slide. A rich sinner could buy indulgences to cover adultery, eating meat during Lent, or any number of other transgressions.

The historical record does not indicate that emitting carbon dioxide was among the redeemable sins. (Well, CO2 wouldnt be discovered until 1754.) Still, medieval Christians would have recognized the attraction of buying indulgences in the form of carbon offsets rather than actually cutting back on CO2-emitting activities. We cant help sinning, so if the act of atonement evens the score, why not grant absolution?

Here in the present, a whole industry has sprung up to sell climate indulgences to guilt-ridden liberals. As one website explains soothingly, Carbon offsets work through supporting tree planting services and carbon offsetting projects to neutralize your emissions and mitigate your impact on the planet. Buying these indulgences requires just a click of your mouse and a credit card. For $25 you can feel good about an airplane flight of up to 10,000 miles! Thats enough to get you from D.C. to Australia, where you can visit the Great Barrier Reef before it is completely destroyed by the ocean acidification resulting from your carbon emissions.

(Ive committed this sin myself: Ive been to Australia, on a miserably long flight the CO2 emissions of which I did not pay $25 to offset. They hadnt invented $25 carbon offsets at the time, or I might have.)

Martin Luther, a 16th century priest who made a name for himself by opposing the selling of indulgences, put the matter succinctly: Indulgences are most pernicious, he wrote, because they induce complacency and thereby imperil salvation.

He meant saving souls, and we mean saving the planet; regardless, he had the psychology right. Were more likely to excuse ourselves for driving gas-guzzlers and flying to cool places if we also pay to plant trees in Africa or bribe Brazilians not to deforest the Am...