S09.E21: Carbon Offsets

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Main topic: Carbon Offsets

Also:  Rudy Giuliani explains that Mar-a-lago is a secure storage facility; midterm elections with a focus on Alaska; Alaska ranked choice voting with elks, polar bears, moose, and penguins; 60 seconds of Tucker Carlson being right about things 

Original air date 2022.08.21

[Lantern7]

Heads-up: HBO will be running the premiere of House of the Dragon twice, so LWT will start at 11:20 p.m.

[Annber03]

I may or may not be popping over to that OliversOffsets site shortly...:p.

"Some Alaskans worry that she's doing this for the fame."

What?! You mean the woman who most recently made news for a surprise appearance on "The Masked Singer", and whose family got into the reality show business, could be doing this for the FAME?!?! Get. Out.  

Seriously, when the hell are Palin's fifteen minutes going to end already? What part of the phrase "Go away" does she fail to grasp? 

I did love the guy trying to explain ranked choice voting in Alaska using various animals, though :D. 

"It's not just me, we're all getting strong Get Out vibes from that place, right?" Yep. I figured the carbon emissions claims were BS simply because, well, look at the companies who are making these claims. JP Morgan, Shell, Disney. Not exactly companies that have been in the news for a lot of GOOD things in recent years/decades. People just aren't very trusting of billionaires and corporations in general nowadays, to where even their claims of supposedly doing good things are automatically suspect. 

That clip of Hannity and Gingrich was AMAZING. Holy crap. 

Oh, Trump supporters. Keeping on at twisting yourselves into pretzels in a desperate attempt to try and defend and excuse Trump taking those documents. The worst part is is that deep down, I think at least some of them know there's absolutely no defense of this that will fly. But they'll be damned if they're not going to keep trying anyway, and in the most hilariously inane way possible besides. Just never ceases to amaze me. 

[ahisma]

Yeah, I knew exactly where John was going with that.

There was a story on NPR Friday about airlines who are going to buy supersonic jets again. Apparently they’re not as worried about the environmental impact this time around because they’re going to make them carbon neutral by making them more fuel efficient… and make up the rest with carbon offsets. I was immediately VERY suspicious, so perfect timing from John on this topic 

Oh, Hannity, eeeew. That’s telling on yourself, for sure. And dragging your buddy down with you.

[Lantern7]

I need to get ready to work, so I’ll just say this: if you ever needed incentive to not watch Shrek movies, John giving you an alternative definition to “going green,” “green things up,” the graphics department and his Scottish accent will more than help you out. “Look meh in the eyes!” . . . 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

Edited August 23, 2022 by Lantern7

[swanpride]

Yeah, I suspected that Carbon Off-sets are basically just another cheat. But it was nice to have it laid out again. 

[Welshman in Ca]

33 minutes ago, swanpride said:

Yeah, I suspected that Carbon Off-sets are basically just another cheat. But it was nice to have it laid out again. 

It's all smoke & mirrors and works with most people just like all the car commercials saying that all these new safety features come as standard on their models and that they have done it for your safety when in fact the only reason most of these safety features are on all models is because they have to be by law & 99% of people don't know that is why these great safety features have appeared and think the car companies have the public good at heart. If they could still get away with exploding cars they would & the same applies to pollution, new laws & big fines are the only thing that will get them to actually do anything, not being able to pay someone to cheat for them.

[DoctorAtomic]

12 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I did love the guy trying to explain ranked choice voting in Alaska using various animals, though :D. 

I didn't catch whether this special election for the House where Palin is running will also be ranked choice. 

[peeayebee]

15 hours ago, Annber03 said:

That clip of Hannity and Gingrich was AMAZING. Holy crap. 

I couldn't believe that! Did Hannity just ad-lib that and not realize who he was talking to? Yikes.

Another aggravating, maddening, and frustrating story about carbon offsets. I really didn't know that this could be done with trees that were already going to be planted or by protecting trees that are already protected.

Oh, and I completely agree with John about that creepy tree. Where is it so I can avoid it?

Edited August 22, 2022 by peeayebee

[xaxat]

I felt bad when that company told me I should be buying offsets for breathing. Then I felt really bad when I laughed at the joke because that would cost me extra.

Then John offered a solution to my problems! But I was too late and now I feel bad again.

Nature Conservancy has a long history of getting tax credits for wealthy landowners who can game the system to get benefits to "protect" land that was never endangered. 

John didn't even get to mention that the newest offset plan is being started by Adam Neuman, who managed to burn billions of dollars of wealth as the founder/CEO of WeWork. And his plan is on the blockchain. What could go wrong?!?

[JustHereForFood]

Alaska always looked beautiful to me, from the nature perspective - cold weather, lots of relatively untouched nature, so much snow, ... aaand that's all I have.

That compilation of Tucker Carlson saying stuff that is actually true - brilliant.

So, you are telling me that corporations don't actually have the future of the planet in mind and are just doing the bare minimum to appease the law and get some bonus points from their environmentally-concious customers, and even that turns out to be a scheme? I AM SHOCKED!!!

5 hours ago, peeayebee said:

Oh, and I completely agree with John about that creepy tree. Where is it so I can avoid it?

I agree, it was the stuff of nightmares.

[ShadowKnight2]

I was adamantly sure John Oliver was going to be discussing Dr. Oz's crudité cuckup. The story was tailor made for him.

Loved the mashup of Tucker Carlson's quotes that were taken out of context to make him look bad. Tucker and Fox News are getting a taste of their own medicine!

[Lugal]

1 hour ago, ShadowKnight2 said:

I was adamantly sure John Oliver was going to be discussing Dr. Oz's crudité cuckup. The story was tailor made for him.

He did a few months ago.  Looking at the article, that was back in April.  Oz is still using the crudité line four months later.  Wow, that is a terrible campaign.

[Lantern7]

Last Week Tonight encapsulated in 27 words: "I don't open my beak to squawk out good news! This thing pops open for sad news and porridge, and I'm all out of porridge right now!"

Disheartening to see that Carbon Offsets are mostly bullshit, and that corporations would rather lay a guilt trip onto average people than make a difference on their own. Also disheartening: Alaska. And Tucker Carlson. That face and that voice . . . .no thank you.

I visited OliversOffsets.org too late to get in on feeling like a hero. The graphic they left behind was cute, though.

Have we ever seen John in flannel before? I think it might work for him. The chainsaw? That would be too much for him to handle.

[JustHereForFood]

But didn't he promise to just not cut down those trees for like 5 minutes for each donation? It seemed to me like that was a scheme that could go on forever.

[Lantern7]

Sadly, in the middle of pretending to threaten trees at the end, I don’t think John mentioned the show won’t be back until September 11.