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I suppose credit is important. I'm generally averse to it on principle, though I have, several times in my life, needed it quite badly. But now, instead of having rewards that get you airline miles you can have a credit card that helps the planet.
One part altruism, one part conscience cleansing, one part badge of honor, the GE Money - Earth Rewards - EcoMagination - Master Card (was that enough brand names or what!) donates to organizations that offset carbon dioxide whenever you spend money.
Their greenhouse gas reduction projects look quite legit, and include methane capture at landfills, renewable energy projects, reforestation and sponsoring efficiency increases. GE is getting excited about the prospect of people offsetting 100% of their carbon with this card. Though, to do that, you'd have to buy $750 worth of stuff with it a month. I'm fairly certain that I spend less than $750 bucks a month, y'know...total.
Though, if I paid EcoGeek's hosting bill with this thing, I that would probably take us a long way toward carbon neutrality.
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written by Honda Catalytic Converters, November 15, 2007
In spite of the irony of the idea, I get its logic...Well, you have a point there... ;)
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In fact an academic (Wackernagel 1992) found that the 20% most wealthy Canadians harm the earth about 4* more than the 20% poorest Canadians. Just imagine what this figure would be in a country like the US, with far greater social inequality. See
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ahsOIFvmGf4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=wackernagel canada 20% poorest&ots=lAhksbvy7i&sig=5AWQdflHpAYAnfDqNz37fhG1tBA#PPP1,M1
and
http://www.sustainable-cities.org.uk/Database_files/phrase-practice.pdf
While not criticizing the card (I actually think its a great idea) I would just like to destroy the implicit assumption that it is OK to spend thousand of dollars on things you don't need (anything that's not food, water or a BASIC home, provided you have a guilt free credit card. It is us, the wealthy Westerners who are destroying the world and reducing our consumption of energy and unnecessary, bulky products is the first thing we can do to help. When this happens please, by all means invest in green energies. Just don't let fads take the guilt out of over-consumption.
Robin Lovelace, Bristol University