Q & A with Mr. Cranky Green: Snowy Winter = Global Warming Called Off? and Adventures in Wind Credits

Q&A with Mr. Cranky Green is a new feature we’re rolling out here at EarthFirst. It’s written by the collective EF Hive and answers our readers questions about all things Green. If you have a good questions for Mr. Cranky Green, send them on to MrCrankyGreen@EarthFirst.com.

Dear Mr. Cranky Green,

I’m confused. I know everyone is talking about Global Warming, but I’m sitting here looking at three feet of snow on my back deck. We’ve had the coldest winter since I can remember and it’s looking to me like this Global Warming thing might be a bit overblown. Can I go back to driving my SUV without feeling guilty? Why is Al Gore trying to steal and eat my babies?

J. Baskind
Eugene, Oregon

Dear J,

No, you should still feel guilt ridden every time you fire up the Landrover. Global Warming doesn’t mean the whole place gets warmer all the time. Planet wide weather patterns are incredibly complex and a colder/warmer/whatever season in one region doesn’t mean jack. Winter was colder in the U.S. this year, but much warmer in Europe. The overall trend of global temperatures continues to rise in correlation with increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. That’s a fact and three feet of snow in your backyard doesn’t mean it’s not true. Al Gore is a Manbearpig fighting God amongst Men. He needs your babies to keep up his energy.

Mr. Cranky Green

Dear Mr. Cranky Green,

My batty old treehugging aunt bought me some ‘wind credits’ for my birthday, once again not getting me the present I actually asked her for- the fourth season of Full House on DVD. What’s the deal with these things?

A. Allehe

Dear A,

Wind credits are a kind of ‘offset’. You might have heard the term ‘carbon offset‘- an ethereal credit created when someone does something that reduces a unit of carbon dioxide from being created somewhere. There are a bunch of different kinds of offsets- tree planting, industrial emissions reductions, efficiency gains and renewable energy generators like wind turbines. They are basically a market based consumer generated subsidy that helps drive advancements and development of green projects like tree plantations, wind farms, solar installations, and industrial CO2 scrubbers.

Wind credits are created for the energy wind farms put on the electricity grid. Wind farms can sell these credits because they displace dirty fossil fuel created electricity on the energy grid. For every kilowatt of energy a wind turbine puts into the electricity pool, that much less coal (statistically most of our energy comes from coal) is burnt to meet the demand. Those emissions and pollution saved are what you are “buying” when you get wind credits.

Wind credits are some of the more trust worthy kinds of offsets because their positive environmental impact is much easier to accurately measure. It’s nearly impossible to get accurate numbers on planting trees and many offset projects have been criticized for their use of mono-culture farms planted over the ground of cut down native forests.

We’re fans of Renewable Choice Energy around here at EarthFirst. They’re the ones who supply wind credits to Whole Foods, Kettle Chips (yumm…. salt & vinegar…), Stratton Mtn., Vail Resorts, and 360 Organic Vodka. We love them mostly because our Publisher Shea was a founder and will get kinda rich when they get around to selling out, but they actually sell a damn fine high quality wind credit.

Mr. Cranky Green

Q&A with Mr. Cranky Green comes atcha every Tuesday or so on the EarthFirst Blog. Send us your questions to MrCrankyGreen@EarthFirst.com so we don’t have to make up these questions.

Photo Credits- Flickr Users EverSpoon (Wind Tubines) & Shelms (Snowy Guy)

Q&A With Mr. Cranky Green: Send Us Your Questions!!!!!

We’re starting a new feature here at EarthFirst called “Q&A with Mr. Cranky Green“. Every Tuesday we’ll be bringing you questions asked by readers and answered by our very own Mr. Cranky Green, a amalgamation of EarthFirst personalities and anonymity that we hope will add a little crack up to your day.

You can send questions about the environment, “going green”, green business, gadgets, environmental activism, or anything else under the eco sky to CrankyGreen@earthfirst.com. We’ll pick the ones that don’t suck and answer them here for all to read.

Send us some questions so we don’t have to make them up. To sweeten the deal we’ll send some free green swag or whatnots to ya if we choose your question.