Poznan, Hot Air, and Carbon Offsets

"I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room."-- Blaise PascalQ: What can we do to save the earth?Wendell Berry: "Stay put."Poznan, two weeks in December: This gabfest will be populated by about 7,900 people who are there for the carnival and maybe 100 people who might conceivably affect meaningful decisions. Their trip to Poznan will be the atmospheric equivalent of running a 50MW coal-fired power plant every day for the two weeks of the conference (specs: 80% capacity factor; 1 ton CO2/MWh). Love those "offsets"…"The Polish government, in anticipation of the carbon that will be generated by the Poznan conference, has estimated the total carbon output of the conference, including hotel rooms, travel, meetings and local transportation. As such, 13,000 tons of green house gases (GHGs) are estimated for the approximate 8,000 attendees expected to show at the Conference, which the Polish government will offset completely once final figures are available. Individual delegations and organizations (such as the United Kingdom and the European Union) have already set measures in place to offset their carbon footprint in traveling to and from the Conference."(Quote from Earth911.com)