Comedy BreakConsumerismEconomicsGlobal Warming/Climate Change

Carbon Offsetting – Is it Cheating?

A couple of years ago I discovered a site called cheatneutral.com. I thought I’d share it with you today in case you haven’t come across it already.

At cheatneutral.com, you’re encouraged to reduce incidences of cheating on your partner, but if you cannot (for reasons beyond your control), you can offset your cheating by investing in a single celibate person, or a monogamous couple.

What is Cheat Offsetting?

When you cheat on your partner you add to the heartbreak, pain and jealousy in the atmosphere.

Cheatneutral offsets your cheating by funding someone else to be faithful and NOT cheat. This neutralises the pain and unhappy emotion and leaves you with a clear conscience.

Can I offset all my cheating?

First you should look at ways of reducing your cheating. Once you’ve done this you can use Cheatneutral to offset the remaining, unavoidable cheating.


It’s an ingenious scheme, don’t you think? Here’s one of several successful case studies found on the site:

Steve and Lisa

Steve and Lisa met while on holiday in Spain, and quickly fell head over heels for each other. That Christmas, at his office party, Steve got drunk and unavoidably repeatedly cheated on Lisa with Cheri, a co-worker. He paid Cheatneutral just £2.50 and we invested his money in Alex, a single man with no prospect of finding a partner. In return for the payments, Alex agreed to remain single.

Thanks to Cheatneutral, Steve was able to come clean about his cheating to Lisa, and when he presented her with the Cheatneutral certificate they realised they wanted to get married. Their wedding is taking place in the summer. Steve continues to regularly cheat on Lisa and Cheatneutral continues to fund projects like Alex with his offset payments. – cheatneutral

Of course, the site is a spoof – anything more than that would be morally repugnant. But it makes an interesting comparison. Can we ‘cheat’ on the environment, and ‘make good’ by offsetting that cheating?

Obviously, in a world-in-transition, some cheating is going to be unavoidable. We’ve been blatantly cheating for so long, that all our systems and economies are based on it. To suddenly stop cheating would bring the world to a standstill, and anarchy and death would ensue (imagine grounding all aircraft, making all vehicles illegal, and stopping all industrialised agriculture today).

But, how do we define that fine line between unavoidable cheating, and promiscuity? Are we doing everything we possibly can to avoid cheating, or are our offsets merely indulgences?

Thoughts?

10 Comments

  1. Hi FanOfWackyVorlon – Climate Change has nothing to do with Permaculture, in the sense that if all people were Permaculturists, we wouldn’t have vast amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases getting poured into the atmosphere. So, it has nothing and everything to do with Permaculture. If that makes sense.

  2. hello

    Anything we do can be defined with intention whether it comes from a good moral ground or a not so good moral ground. cheating in ANY CASE surly comes from a not so good moral ground so dont do it and the world would be an even more lovely place.
    i agree, what has this to do with permaculture.
    It made me laugh though.

  3. Really confused how we can’t understand how looking at climate change issues is not important for a site promoting Permaculture? If we screw the climate up, and it destroys us, then that’s not a Permanent culture, is it.

    Permaculture brings real tangible solutions to climate change (and a lot of other connected problems). Not least of which is the enormous potential of our soils becoming, once more, the carbon sinks they should be, rather than the carbon source they’ve become due to industrial agriculture. After the oceans, our soils are (potentially – if we manage them properly) the largest carbon sink on the planet.

    The cheat neutral spoof is just a good way of bringing the principles of carbon trading down to a level that many more people can identify with and relate to.

    Permaculture is not a ‘lifestyle choice’, or a hobby, or a trendy thing to do. It’s about mankind’s survival. If we don’t see how Permaculture, our ecological woes, and current events are all interlinked, then I suspect we’re a little out of touch with what’s going on in the world.

  4. People HAVE to understand that the earth’s climate is NOT affected very much by our doings, the earth’s changes are happening because of the time we live in. The entire planet and also all others in our solar system, including the sun, are all going through cyclical changes. But, this obviously doesn’t mean that we should keep acting the way we do in our society, we must all change our ways yes, not solely because of climate change but because of our very well being and the health of the earth and all its inhabitants as well.

  5. wtf? this site is misleading…. i jus wanted to find if carbon trading offsetting is cheating or not?…. n wat am i supposed to do with Steve n Lisa

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