Environment Versus The Bottom Line – Weird Wall Street Trading Markets
Even for a group focused on Investing First and Green Second, this is getting a little silly.
The longer I am here at the Wall Street Green Trading Summit, the less this feels like anything to do with environmentalism. At some point, when does off-setting stop being feasible, and when does carbon reduction become the name of the game?
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This was driven home to me by a presentation on the investment opportunities presented by species banks. Now, I didn’t even know what a species bank was until today, but apparently you can purchase an offset credit to get around the fact that your company is destroying the natural habitat of an endangered species. And, there is an entire market based around this principle.
How do you Off-Set extinction?
I find it weird enough that you can buy someone else’s non-produced carbon, but for some reason the idea of off-setting the life of an ecosystem by building another habit elsewhere sticks in my throat. On the one hand, I suppose that it’s good that organizations like the National Mitigation Banking Association exist: groups that are created to bring the power of the dollar to bear on conservation. They have created marshlands and protected streams. On the other hand though, doesn’t it feel odd to base a market on the regulations that people have passed to protect endangered species? It’s a market that has grown up around the Clean Water act, but it’s certainly not about making water cleaner.
Then, there is this: a compiler of all the offsets that you can buy, and an in depth list of how they work. Can someone explain to me why this isn’t just a parasitical market making cash off businesses willingness to destroy wildlife at all costs?
Speciesbanking.com is the nation’s first information clearinghouse for the species credit trading industry. Until now, there has been no centralized information resource to serve buyers, sellers, and other market participants. Basic information such as number of banks, species covered, location, availability of credits, and contact details have not been readily available.
Ok, fine. Someone has to do it, and capitalism at least guarantees that, pound for pound, destroyed habitats have to be replaced. But I don’t see how they can sell this as being “green”. It’s no more or less green then trading mortgage backed realities. Part of me wants to say that even by engaging in the conversation, we’re missing the point. Continued…
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About the Author
Alan Smith Alan Smith is a Freelance Producer in Brooklyn New York who’s been fortunate enough in the past to work on a Peabody award winning radio show (the Brian Lehrer show, WNYC Radio) and an Emmy nominated TV program (Brian Lehrer Live on CUNY TV). Other highlights include PhilanthroMedia, a new media company which works for social change with non-profits and foundations across the globe. In my spare time, I’m interested in the science and politics of the current green movement, and write about those things in and around whatever else crosses my grill at www.livingtheamericangreen.org
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