Forum Index > Public Lands Stewardship > Blockchain company buys $1M in carbon credits generated by Issaquah forest, the biggest such deal in
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Cyclopath
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PostSun Jun 05, 2022 9:43 pm 
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/blockchain-company-buys-1m-in-carbon-credits-generated-by-issaquah-forest-biggest-such-deal-in-u-s/ Blockchain company buys $1M in carbon credits generated by Issaquah forest, the biggest such deal in U.S. history King County announced Friday that Regen Network Development, a Delaware-based blockchain software development company, bought $1 million in carbon credits generated by a 46-acre forest in Issaquah. The deal is being hailed as the largest single sale of urban forest credits in U.S. history. The money earned will be used by the county, the city of Issaquah and the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, among others, to further protect and conserve urban forests, according to the county.

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Sculpin
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PostMon Jun 06, 2022 8:36 am 
As BC would say...dafuq? This is as surreal and Kafkaesque as you can get. It starts with an abandoned forest near Issaquah, where clearcut logging is politically difficult on steep slopes above multimillion dollar McMansions, and any other form of logging would lose money. What to do if you are cynical and really don't care? Sell the carbon credits and leave the worthless peckerpoles there! In comes the blockchain company. What the heck are they doing? This article in Time requires a free subscription sign-up: https://time.com/6181907/crypto-carbon-credits/ Here's the money quote: "If crypto traders got involved and started investing in these tokens, KlimaDAO’s team argued, they might drive the price of the credits up, forcing polluting companies to either pay for higher-priced, higher-quality carbon credits or find more energy-efficient production methods." So the blockchain company gets dual benefits, it tells its investors that it is offsetting the turbine-slowing power it draws to mine bitcoin, and then it tokenizes the carbon credits and eventually sells them to the highest bidder. I don't think we are in Kansas anymore, Toto. huh.gif

Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir

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altasnob
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PostMon Jun 06, 2022 2:14 pm 
Sculpin wrote:
This is as surreal and Kafkaesque as you can get.
I'm still trying to decide if this is a good thing or not. The only way you are going to get government to take land that could be logged and protect it in perpetuity is to pay government money. Same with private land conservation. The only way to get private citizens to put their land into a conservation easement is to pay them money, which we currently do, through property tax breaks in exchange for conservation easements. The crypto currency company was going to pollute regardless of this agreement. So now the government gets a little money, has a legal reason to permanently set aside the land for conservation purposes, and the crypto currency company feels a bit better about themselves as they continue to pollute.

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Cyclopath
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PostMon Jun 06, 2022 6:27 pm 
https://www.regen.network/ It doesn't sound like a cryptocurrency company?

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Cyclopath
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PostMon Jun 06, 2022 8:37 pm 
I posted this without comment because I don't know how I feel about it and wanted input from the brain trust. My immediate feeling was that these trees have been there forever and aren't going anywhere, so nothing is actually being offset? The software company presents itself as filling a niche facilitating a transformative regreening where we all sing kumbaya. I'm a cynical person but hope this is a good thing? Still feels very weird.

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Sculpin
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PostMon Jun 06, 2022 10:08 pm 
Cyclopath wrote:
It doesn't sound like a cryptocurrency company?
Sounds like what is described in the Time article, a cryptocurrency hedge fund in carbon credits.

Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir
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NacMacFeegle
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PostTue Jun 07, 2022 7:59 am 
Sculpin wrote:
It starts with an abandoned forest near Issaquah, where clearcut logging is politically difficult on steep slopes above multimillion dollar McMansions, and any other form of logging would lose money. What to do if you are cynical and really don't care? Sell the carbon credits and leave the worthless peckerpoles there!
Yep, this is the big problem with carbon credit programs. They are only really helpful if the forest being protected could not otherwise be protected by other means. For example, the DNR carbon credit program is including a lot of forests already off-limits to logging. In the case of Issaquah, I haven't done any research on that particular project, but just the fact that a crypto company is involved makes me instantly suspicious. The emissions they're offsetting are being caused in the production of digital money, rather than anything real or meaningful. On the bright size, if the money from these credits is used to preserve at-risk forest land, that improves the situation significantly in my mind.

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PostTue Jun 07, 2022 8:37 am 
It's a bribe to pollute dressed in sheep's clothing.

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PostTue Jun 07, 2022 8:59 am 
NacMacFeegle wrote:
to preserve at-risk forest land
That is not part of the plan. If by "at risk' you mean at risk of being cut, that would be a forest that can be profitably cut. The DNR charter requires that they perform those cuts for maximum profit, that has not and will not change unless we update the charter. This is all about monetizing forests that cannot be profitably cut for any of a variety of reasons. Fake forestland monetized into fake carbon credits and traded for fake money by fake companies.

Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir

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Schroder
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PostThu Oct 27, 2022 9:57 am 
I worked for a very brief time for Enron. This sounds just like a scheme from their brain trust.

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PostThu Oct 27, 2022 10:17 am 
huh.gif

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treeswarper
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PostThu Oct 27, 2022 4:42 pm 
Can't be profitably cut NOW. Maybe later? Maybe after it burns down and is replanted? Selling forest for carbon credits was touted as a way to make some money off of your land when the timber market was in the tank. The bad news was that you just couldn't say, I'm done and log it when prices went up. This was presented at a meeting of small tree farm owners about 15 years ago. Then no more mention of it.

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PowderPawn
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PostWed Nov 02, 2022 8:16 pm 
Spend it while you got it because all the bitcoins are eventually headed to the same place if you ask me. The pollution credit system has a lot of implications and effects, most people hate it a lot, I think they should only hate it a little.

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FiveNines
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PostThu Nov 10, 2022 9:20 pm 
Is there a token I can buy to support this? Like a Forest Tree Token? Mixing environmental policy w/unregulated blockchain securities markets is the future. I hope I can invest my 401k in this too. Act fast! Or they'll get there first. Steps 1-3 of virtuous/win-win cycle: Environmentalism is hard. Buying things is easy. Profit!

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Forum Index > Public Lands Stewardship > Blockchain company buys $1M in carbon credits generated by Issaquah forest, the biggest such deal in
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