Setting Aside Privacy Issue, Estonia Blazes Digital Path

Estonian national costumes: 5. Muhu 6. Karja 7. Tõstamaa 8. Pärnu-Jaagupi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

BY MARK SCOTT


TALLINN, Estonia – The centuries-old city center here looks quaintly antique, with cobbled streets lined by medieval buildings at nearly every turn. But the people have fully embraced the digital world, enthusiastically adopting public and private online services.

Estonians, using national identity card embedded with a microchip, gain access to some 4,000 services, including banking, business registration and even fishing licenses. They review medical records on smartphones. Almost everyone files taxes on the web within minutes, and about a third of voters now cast their ballots online.

While Europe and the United States debate the role of technology in people’s daily lives, Estonia has welcomed it as a fact of life, shooting away concerns about data privacy. In the last 23 years, Estonia, a Baltic country, has transformed from being a member of the Soviet bloc to one of the most connected countries, using technology built primarily within its borders.

The rest of the world has taken notice. The country’s former prime minister, Andrus Ansip, is the new European Commission vice president in charge of Europe’s digital future. “I know from personal experience that paperless government can work,” he said.

With a population of 1.3 million, Estonia faces fewer challenges than bigger countries like Britain and the United States when introducing online services. The transformation has been made on a small budget. The country spends about 50 million euros a year on information technology.

Its decision to go digital also has been driven by the fact that, at independence, it had few financial resources and a small population to jump-start its economy.

Local policy makers soon realized that they could not offer Western-style services without using new technology that could keep costs to a minimum.

Estonia relies on a government-run technology infrastructure, called X-Road that links public and private databases into the country’s digital services. All personal information is kept on separate servers and behind distinct security walls of government agencies, but the system allows the state and businesses like banks to share data when individuals give consent.

Estonians say the online services are more secure and more convenient than traditional methods of dealing with the government.

“Digital services have changed our lives,” said Taavi Roivas, who recently succeeded Mr. Ansip as prime minister.

About 98 percent of Estonians file their income taxes online, taking about five minutes, said Marek Helm, who leads Estonia’s tax and customs authority. That has increased overall tax compliance, cut his agency’s staff in half, and made tax refunds possible within a week.

There were some problems. Estonia’s online medical portal routinely crashed after digital prescriptions were introduced in 2010 because retirees kept signing into the system to renew their medication on the day they all received their pensions. And some local politicians have alleged fraud in online voting.

But the country now wants to take its digital services global by signing up people living outside Europe for so-called “e-residencies “that would give them access to Estonia’s public and private online services.

The upside, Estonians say, is convenience. “I can’t imagine doing things the old-fashioned way,” said Priit Heinla, 27, a project manager for an energy company who uses digital signatures. “You don’t have to sign a mountain of paperwork. It’s just one signature and you’re done.”


Taken from TODAY Saturday Edition, November 1, 2014

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US Supreme Court leaves stem cell research alone

Posted: 08 January 2013

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court declined Monday to enter the emotionally-charged debate over stem cell research, refusing to hear an appeal centred on the issue of federal government funding.

The top US court did not give a reason for its decision, which ends the long judicial saga over President Barack Obama's 2009 executive order lifting restrictions on financing imposed by his predecessor George W. Bush.

The appeal had come from two researchers working with adult cells rather than embryonic stem cells.

They had asked the Supreme Court to halt financing for stem cell research on the grounds that federal law banned the creation and destruction of embryos for scientific study.

Stem cell research is said to be promising for finding new treatments for a variety of diseases.

A federal judge banned the financing in 2010, but an appeals court in Washington reversed the ruling in 2012. The court said the federal ban does not apply to previously existing embryos that resulted from in vitro fertilization procedures.

Government financing through the National Institutes of Health was authorised for cells from frozen embryos that were left over from fertility treatments.

The NIH, which allowed researchers to use stem cells derived from donated frozen embryos no longer needed for fertility treatments, hailed the ruling.

"This decision allows the ruling to stand, and enables NIH to continue conducting and funding stem cell research, following the strict ethical guidelines put in place in 2009," NIH Director Francis Collins said in a statement.

"Patients and their families who look forward to new therapies to replace cells lost by disease or injury, or who may benefit from new drugs identified by screening using stem cells, should be reassured that NIH will continue supporting this promising research."

- AFP/jc


-----
Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
US Supreme Court leaves stem cell research alone

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US STD research killed 83

Posted: 30 August 2011

WASHINGTON: At least 83 people died as human guinea pigs in macabre US research on sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala in the 1940s, a commission ordered by US President Barack Obama concluded Monday.

Nearly 5,500 people were subjected to diagnostic testing and more than 1,300 were exposed to venereal diseases by human contact or inoculations in research meant to test the drug penicillin, the presidential commission found.

Within that group, "we believe that there were 83 deaths," said Stephen Hauser a member of the commission, which has pored over 125,000 documents linked to the shocking episode since being set up by Obama last November.

Among the 1,300 people exposed to STDs during research between 1946 and 1948, "under 700 received some form of treatment as best as could be documented," Hauser said.

Obama personally apologised to Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom in October before ordering a thorough review of what happened. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the experiments as "clearly unethical."

This sentiment was clearly expressed by the commission, which said US government researchers must have known they were contravening ethical standards by deliberately infecting mental patients with syphilis.

Commission president Amy Gutmann called it an "historic injustice," and said the inquiry aimed to "honour the victims and make sure it never happens again."

"It was not an accident that this happened in Guatemala," Gutmann said. "Some of the people involved said we could not do this in our own country."

The US researchers "systematically failed to act in accordance with minimal respect for human rights and morality in the conduct of research," she said, citing "substantial evidence" of an attempted cover-up.

A Guatemalan study, which was never published, came to light in 2010 after Wellesley College professor Susan Reverby stumbled upon archived documents outlining the experiment led by controversial US doctor John Cutler.

Cutler and his fellow researchers enrolled 1,500 people in Guatemala, including mental patients, for the study, which aimed to find out if penicillin could be used to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

Initially, the researchers infected female Guatemalan commercial sex workers with gonorrhea or syphilis, and then encouraged them to have unprotected sex with soldiers or prison inmates.

Neither were the subjects told what the purpose of the research was nor were they warned of its potentially fatal consequences.

Cutler, who died in 2003, was also involved in a highly controversial study known as the Tuskegee Experiment in which hundreds of African-American men with late-stage syphilis were observed but given no treatment between 1932 and 1972.

The Guatemalan president has called the 1946-1948 experiments conducted by the US National Institutes of Health "crimes against humanity" and ordered his own investigation.

-AFP/wk


Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
US STD research killed 83

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(Starting to) Play God?

I will let the news tell it all. What do you think?
-----

Science of man-made life can proceed: White House
Posted: 17 December 2010 0010 hrs

WASHINGTON - The White House on Thursday said the controversial field of synthetic biology, or manipulating the DNA of organisms to forge new life forms, poses limited risks and should be allowed to proceed.

An expert panel convened by President Barack Obama advised vigilance and self-regulation as scientists seek ways to create new organisms that could spark useful innovations in clean energy, pollution control and medicine.

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues "concluded that synthetic biology is capable of significant but limited achievements posing limited risks," it said in its first report.

"Future developments may raise further objections, but the Commission found no reason to endorse additional federal regulations or a moratorium on work in this field at this time."

The 13-member panel of scientists, ethicists and public policy experts was created by Obama last year.

Its first order of business was to consider the issue of synthetic biology after the J. Craig Venter Institute announced in May it had developed the first self-replicating bacteria cell controlled by a synthetic genome.

Critics said the discovery was tantamount to "playing God", creating organisms without adequate understanding the ramifications, and upsetting the natural order.

Announcing the creation of the "first synthetic cell", lead researcher Craig Venter said at the time it "certainly changed my views of the definitions of life and how life works."

But the commission said Venter's team had not actually created life, since the work mainly involved altering an already existing life form.

"Thoughtful deliberation about the meaning of this achievement was impossible in the hours that elapsed between the breaking news and the initial round of commentaries that ensued," it said in its report.

"Of note, many scientists observe that this achievement is not tantamount to 'creating life' in a scientific sense because the research required a functioning, naturally occurring host cell to accept the synthesized genome."

Commission chair Amy Gutmann said the panel considered a range of approaches to regulating the new scientific field, from allowing unbridled freedom to imposing strict government regulation on experiments.

"We chose a middle course to maximize public benefits while also safeguarding against risks," she said.

"Prudent vigilance suggests that federal oversight is needed and can be exercised in a way that is consistent with scientific progress."

As to the risk of releasing modified organisms into nature, a scenario some have warned could spark biological threats or damage to the ecosystem, "scientists and ethicists advised careful monitoring and review of the research," the panel said.

The panel also urged greater cooperation among federal agencies that oversee product licensing and funding of synthetic biology, and collaboration with world governments and global groups like the World Health Organization.

"Educational classes on the ethical dilemmas raised by synthetic biology should be a mandatory part of training for young researchers, engineers, and others who work in this emerging field," it added.

- AFP/al


Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:Science of man-made life can proceed: White House

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VICTORY AGAINST FEAR MONGERERS

Image by IowaPolitics.com via Flickr

A news article taken from TODAYOnline.com, Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010

------------------------------
THE day before Sunday's health-care vote, President Barack Obama gave an unscripted talk to House Democrats.

Near the end, he spoke about why his party should pass reform: "Every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made ... And this is the time to make true on that promise."

On the other side, here's what Mr Newt Gingrich, the Republican former Speaker of the House had to say: If Democrats pass health reform, "they will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years" by passing civil rights legislation.

Consider the contrast: On one side, the closing argument was an appeal to our better angels, urging politicians to do what is right, even if it hurts their careers; on the other side, callous cynicism.

Think about what it means to condemn health reform by comparing it to the Civil Rights Act.

Who in modern America would say that LBJ did the wrong thing by pushing for racial equality?

And that cynicism has been the hallmark of the whole campaign against reform.

Yes, a few conservative policy intellectuals, after making a show of thinking hard about the issues, claimed to be disturbed by reform's fiscal implications (but were strangely unmoved by the clean bill of fiscal health from the Congressional Budget Office) or to want stronger action on costs (even though this reform does more to tackle health-care costs than any previous legislation).

For the most part, however, opponents of reform didn't even pretend to engage with the reality either of the existing health-care system or of the moderate, centrist plan Democrats were proposing.

Instead, the emotional core of opposition to reform was blatant fear-mongering, unconstrained either by the facts or by any sense of decency.

It wasn't just the death panel smear.

It was racial hate-mongering, like a piece in Investor's Business Daily declaring that health reform is "affirmative action on steroids, deciding everything from who becomes a doctor to who gets treatment on the basis of skin colour".

It was wild claims about abortion funding.

It was the insistence that there is something tyrannical about giving young working Americans the assurance that health care will be available when they need it.

And let's be clear: The campaign of fear hasn't been carried out by a radical fringe.

On the contrary, the Republican establishment has been involved and approving all the way.

The campaign of fear was effective: Health reform went from being highly popular to wide disapproval, although the numbers have been improving lately.

But the question was, would it actually be enough to block reform?

And the answer is no. The Democrats have done it.

The House has passed the Senate version of health reform, and an improved version will be achieved through reconciliation.

This is, of course, a political victory for President Obama and a triumph for Ms Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker.

But it is also a victory for America's soul. In the end, a vicious, unprincipled fear offensive failed to block reform. 
----------

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China Wares Then, China Moon Now

Image via Wikipedia

US DECISION LEAVES CHINA SHOOTING FOR MOON

------------------------------------------

BEIJING - China aims to land its first astronauts on the moon within a decade at the dawn of a new era of manned space exploration - a race it now leads thanks to the United States decision to drop its lunar programme.

US President Barack Obama earlier this month said he planned to drop the costly Constellation space programme, a budget move that would kill off future moon exploration if it is approved by Congress.

In contrast, China has a fast-growing human spaceflight project that has notched one success after another, including a spacewalk by astronauts in 2008, with plans for a manned lunar mission by around 2020.

The turnaround is viewed as yet another example of the Asian power's rising profile and technical prowess.

"Overall, China is behind the US in technology and in actual presence in space - the US operates dozens of satellites, the Chinese only a few," said Mr James Lewis, of the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

"The real concern is the trend: China's capacities are increasing while the US, despite spending billions of dollars, appears to be stuck in a rut."

The Americans have achieved the only manned lunar missions, making six trips from 1969 to 1972.

But China has been gaining in the space race after launching a manned programme in 1992, and sending its first astronaut into space in 2003.

Only Russia and the US had previously put a man into space independently.

China aims to launch an unmanned rover on the moon's surface by 2012 ahead of the manned lunar mission a decade from now.

"It is not a very expensive space programme but it is relatively well worked out in terms of autonomy, efficiency and independence," said Ms Isabelle Sourbes Verger, a France-based specialist on the Chinese space programme.

Some experts have questioned Beijing's timeframe for landing a man on the moon, but Mr Peter Cugley, a China specialist at the non-profit research centre CNA in the US, says the actual timing is not that relevant.

"Even if a PRC (Chinese) manned lunar landing doesn't happen in the timeframe initially established, the technical expertise gained and boost in national prestige is what the Chinese Communist Party is most interested in," he said.

China sees its space programme as a symbol of its global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the formerly poverty-stricken nation.

Experts see its push for the moon, while Washington backs off, as further confirmation of its emergence as a superpower. "I see it as a confirmation of America's decline," said Mr Lewis.

China also has pursued its space ambitions efficiently. The Constellation programme had already cost US$10 billion ($14.1 billion), or nearly 10 times more than the entire Chinese space programme, according to official data.

Mr Fu Song, the vice dean of the School of Aerospace at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said Mr Obama's decision was unlikely to spur China to ramp up its space programme, saying its development would remain on a steady course.

But Beijing has other significant Asian competitors to reckon with as it vies to become the second nation to put a man on the moon.

India landed a lunar probe in 2008, and a top official said last month it was targeting a manned space mission in 2016. Japan, meanwhile, launched its first lunar satellite in June last year. AFP

From TODAY, Monday, 22-Feb-2010

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Obama says US "fully prepared" for any NKorea nuke launch

Posted: 22 June 2009 0948 hrs

US President Barack Obama

WASHINGTON: The United States is "fully prepared for any contingencies" with North Korea, including a potential missile launch toward US territory, President Barack Obama said in an interview to be aired Monday.

"This administration - and our military - is fully prepared for any contingencies," Obama told CBS when asked about the possibility that North Korea could fire a missile toward Hawaii in the coming weeks.

Asked if that meant Washington was "warning of a military response," Obama answered: "No. It's just we are prepared for any contingencies.

"I don't want to speculate on hypotheticals. But I do want to give assurances to the American people that the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted in terms of what might happen," he added, according to excerpts released Sunday.

The US military has beefed up its Hawaii defences over fears Pyongyang may launch a missile at the Pacific island chain, and is tracking a North Korean ship possibly carrying banned cargo, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

"I would just say I think we are in a good position should it become necessary to protect American territory," the Pentagon chief said, adding that he had approved the deployment to Hawaii of Theatre High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) weaponry for "support" in case of a North Korean launch.

South Korea's YTN television news channel, citing an unnamed intelligence source, said the United States suspects that the 2,000-tonne Kang Nam 1 is carrying missiles or related parts, and is heading for Myanmar via Singapore.

US defense officials have said a US Navy destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, is tracking the Kang Nam 1, which has been previously linked to illicit missile-related cargo.

It is the first vessel to be monitored under a United Nations resolution imposed a week ago that bans shipments of arms and nuclear or missile technology to and from North Korea.

US officials have yet to indicate if or when they might ask to search the vessel under the UN Security Council resolution.

In the interview, Obama also said there was strong international consensus against Pyongyang, after it detonated its second nuclear device on May 25 - following the first one in 2006 - and went ahead with what Washington called a disguised test of a long-range missile in April.

"More broadly, I think the international community has spoken," Obama said, noting that the UN Security Council has agreed to tighter cargo inspections, a stricter arms embargo and new targeted financial curbs to choke off revenue for the North's nuclear and missile sectors.

"That sends a signal... of a unity in the international community that we haven't seen in quite some time," Obama told CBS.

"And one of the things that we have been very clear about is that North Korea has a path towards rejoining the international community. And we hope they take that path. What we're not going to do is to reward belligerence and provocation in the way that's been done in the past."

Obama on Tuesday called Pyongyang a "grave threat" and vowed to defend South Korea after talks in Washington with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.

The North in turn accused Obama and Lee of "trying to ignite a nuclear war."

"The US-touted provision of 'extended deterrence, including a nuclear umbrella' (for South Korea) is nothing but 'a nuclear war plan,'" the North's state-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said.

- AFP/yb

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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North Korea accuses Obama of nuclear war plot

Posted: 22 June 2009 0202 hrs

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il inspects the command of 7th Infantry Division of the Korean People's Army at an undisclosed location.

SEOUL: North Korea has accused US President Barack Obama of plotting a nuclear war on the communist nation by reaffirming a US assurance of security for South Korea, the North's state media said.

In a first official response to last week's US-South Korean summit, the state-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said in its Saturday edition Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak "are trying to ignite a nuclear war".

"The US-touted provision of 'extended deterrence, including a nuclear umbrella' (for South Korea) is nothing but 'a nuclear war plan,'" Tongil Sinbo said.

It said it wasn't a coincidence that the United States has brought "nuclear equipment into South Korea and its surroundings and staged massive war drills every day to look for a chance to invade North Korea."

Pyongyang has created weeks of tension by conducting a second nuclear test and test-firing missiles.

At a summit with Lee in Washington Wednesday, Obama warned that North Korea is a "grave threat" and vowed to defend South Korea.

A Seoul presidential official told Yonhap news agency Lee would seek a written US commitment to provide a nuclear "umbrella" for Seoul as part of "extended deterrence" against Pyongyang.

North Korea detonated its second nuclear device on May 25, following the first one in 2006. It also went ahead with what Washington said was a disguised test of a long-range missile in April.

The United Nations Security Council in response agreed to tighter cargo inspections, a stricter arms embargo and new targeted financial curbs to choke off revenue for the North's nuclear and missile sectors.

In response Pyongyang has vowed to build more nuclear bombs and start enriching uranium for a new atomic weapons program.

Some analysts say the sabre-rattling is part of an attempt by 67-year-old ailing North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il, to bolster a succession plan involving his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un. - AFP/de

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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PETA wishes Obama hadn't swatted that fly

Image by nasa hq photo via Flickr

I find this amusing… well, to some it may not be, but to me, this is something amusing... really!

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06/18/2009 | 10:50 AM

WASHINGTON – The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.

PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.

"We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals."

During an interview for CNBC at the White House on Tuesday, a fly intruded on Obama's conversation with correspondent John Harwood.

"Get out of here," the president told the pesky insect. When it didn't, he waited for the fly to settle, put his hand up and then smacked it dead.

"Now, where were we?" Obama asked Harwood. Then he added: "That was pretty impressive, wasn't it? I got the sucker."

Friedrich said that PETA was pleased with Obama's voting record in the Senate on behalf of animal rights and noted that he has been outspoken against animal abuses.

Still, "swatting a fly on TV indicates he's not perfect," Friedrich said, "and we're happy to say that we wish he hadn't."

Deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said the White House has no comment on the matter. – AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

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Fixing what’s broken...

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Obama outlines plan for universal healthcare system

WASHINGTON - United States President Barack Obama on Thursday set out a broad plan to replace America's patchwork healthcare coverage with a universal system, the goal that has long eluded US presidents.

Mr Obama, whose speech was preceded by testimony from a cancer patient, said: "After decades of inaction, we have finally decided to fix what is broken about healthcare in America. We have decided it's time to give every American (affordable) quality healthcare."

The political firefight that is about to engulf the US in the next few months is over the 45 million people who have no health insurance that Mr Obama wants to bring into the system.

One of the main doctors' groups warned on Friday that Mr Obama's plan would lead to inflated health-insurance costs. There are testimonies from thousands of uninsured people relating horror stories of experiences trying to obtain medical help.

There are gripping stories from people with insurance who found the companies failing to pay out for treatment. Others complain insurance companies refuse to give them coverage because they already have a medical condition.

The President hopes to have legislation implementing health reform on his desk by Oct 1 and said he would not tolerate "endless delay" by Congress.

Mr Obama specifically chose to deliver his speech in Green Bay, Wisconsin because it has a healthcare system in place that is more extensive and cheaper than elsewhere in the US.

He proposed the establishment of a health insurance exchange, which would set up a government-backed insurance scheme in competition with private insurance companies.

The scheme "would allow you to one-stop shop for a healthcare plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose what's best for you. None of these plans would be able to deny coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition. All should include an affordable, basic benefit package," he said.

"And if you can't afford one of the plans, we should provide assistance to ensure you can."

The scale of the opposition became clearer when Republicans rejected his plan outright, and some Democrats expressed scepticism. The American Medical Association, which represents doctors, opposed it, as did private insurers. THE GUARDIAN

From TODAY, World – Weekend, 13/14-Jun-2009

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Carbon offsets: A small price to pay

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ROBERT H FRANK

05:55 AM Jun 05, 2009

They are intended to reduce the environmental impact of consumption. Travelling by plane, for example, causes carbon dioxide to be emitted into the atmosphere, so travellers can pay a specialist to offset those emissions some other way - perhaps by planting vegetation or installing renewable-energy technologies. It all sounds reasonable.

Yet carbon offsets have drawn sharp criticism, even ridicule. A British website called Cheat Neutral (www.cheatneutral.com) parodies the concept - by offering a service under which someone who wants to cheat on his partner can pay someone else who will refrain from committing an act of infidelity. The site's founders say they wanted to use humour to demonstrate why the market for carbon offsets is a moral travesty.

But the criticism is misguided. If our goal is to reduce carbon emissions as efficiently as possible, offsets make perfect economic sense.

Consider someone who wonders whether it's okay to eat foods grown far from home. A New Yorker may worry, for example, that the diesel fuel burned to ship California-grown tomatoes to him in winter will accelerate global warming.

But suppose he would be happy to pay US$10 ($14.40) more than the cost of shipping those tomatoes rather than eat locally-grown root vegetables nine months a year. That would buy more than enough carbon offsets to neutralise the greenhouse gases emitted by shipping the tomatoes. So it would be much better, for him and the planet, if he bought offsets and ate winter tomatoes.

Of course, carbon offsets alone won't eliminate global warming. People also need stronger incentives to take into account the environmental consequences of their actions.

President Barack Obama has proposed attacking the problem with a carbon cap-and-trade system. The government would first set a limit on annual carbon emissions, then auction emission permits to the highest bidders. Companies could still use processes or sell products that emit carbon, but only by first buying a permit for each unit of carbon released. If the government wanted to limit carbon emissions to 5 billion tonnes a year, for example, it would auction that many tonnes of annual carbon permits.

This approach was first used in the United States to address acid rain, when the Clean Air Act established a market for permits to emit sulfur dioxide. Compared with more traditional regulatory measures, the auction method substantially reduced the cost of achieving the law's air-quality target.

As people learn more about such an approach, they seem less likely to oppose it.

Although several environmental groups once bitterly opposed pollution permit auctions, they now endorse them enthusiastically.

A carbon cap-and-trade system is functionally similar to a carbon tax. Both approaches would raise the cost of activities that generate carbon dioxide emissions, giving people a powerful incentive to reduce their carbon footprints.

Carbon offsets are no substitute for the stronger incentives inherent in carbon taxes or cap-and-trade, but they can reinforce their effects. Both carbon taxes and permit auctions would also generate revenue that could be used to buy additional carbon offsets.

Dozens of companies, non-profit and for-profit, sell carbon offsets, and some critics question how their work can be verified. But with various certification programmes now in place - including the Gold Standard and Green-e Climate, to name two - there is no reason that fraud should be harder to curb in carbon-offset markets than in other domains.

At last count, Cheat Neutral, the British infidelity neutralisation website, said it had offset 65,768 cheats, and had recruited a roster of "9,002 faithful people ready to neutralize your misdemeanours." The website draws out the parallel this way: "When you cheat on your partner you add to the heartbreak, pain, and jealousy in the atmosphere". Cheat Neutral claims that its plan "neutralises the pain and unhappy emotion and leaves you with a clear conscience".

Actually, no.

Only you will know whether your conscience is clear, but it is certain that higher rates of marital fidelity in London do nothing to eliminate the anguish caused by straying spouses in Manchester. In contrast, one person's reduction in carbon dioxide emissions anywhere on the planet fully offsets anyone else's contribution to the total.

Carbon offsets, though much maligned, are an excellent idea. If you want to help reduce carbon emissions, consider buying some.

The New York Times

From TODAY, World – Friday, 05-Jun-2009; see the source article here.

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