Lowest common denominator

This reminds me of a discussion at the alumni board last week in which an alum asked what steps the college is taking towards sustainability. The answer included that the college had been recycling since before recycling was commonly accepted around the country, energy efficiency measures are in place for all new buildings--they were built according to LEED standards, but the application costs for LEED certification are better spent increasing efficiency in older buildings--and all the invasive species had been removed from "the canyon" one of the last urban areas that salmon still return to spawn in.

Finally, the question of carbon offsets was tackled. I very much appreciated the first part of the answer: we have to know whether the money spent on offsets is truly offsetting our emissions, otherwise the money is better spent reducing the carbon footprint directly at the college itself. Very wise. But then came the kicker: political ramifications to offsetting might prevent us from doing so even if it turns out to be feasible.

The problem isn't that the issue of what to do about global warming is "politicized." Politicians decide policy options such as cap-and-trade or carbon taxes and politics will be what it is: a struggle between various opinions. The problem comes in when one side has framed the issue in such a way that anyone willing to consider alternatives must fear being labelled hypocrtical by those who claim to be opposed to how politicized the issue has become.