The company "Finite Carbon" sells "carbon offsets" based on trees that will be spared the As.Experts using satellite photos say thatthese offsets do little goodfor the climate.

Of course, it is not unusual for businesses to cheat their customers or the public. Some ofthese offsets are fraudulent — selling a commitment not to cut down treesthatwon't be cut down anyway.

Bu what I noticed about these "offsets" is that they can be bogus even by accident. The treesin question could be killed, five or ten or twenty years later, by a wildfire, a disease orparasite, or desertification.