Environmentalists invade Environmental Defense office to protest carbon trading

A coalition of radical environmental groups says they took over Environmental Defense's Washington DC office yesterday to protest the national group's support of carbon trading to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate warning tape (Rising Tide North America)

Holding signs that said "carbon trading is an environmental offense" and "Keep the cap, ditch the trade," Rachel Smolker, the daughter of Environmental Defense founder Robert Smolker read a statement that said in part "My father was one of the founders of this organization, which sadly I am now ashamed of. The Kyoto Protocol, the European Emissions Trading Scheme and virtually every other initiative for reducing emissions have adopted their market approaches.So far they have utterly failed, serving only to provide huge profits to the world’s most polluting industries."

Carbon trading - which President-elect Barack Obama supports - sets a cap on how much greenhouse gas should be emitted. Polluters that emit more than they should then buy pollution credits from those that pollute less. As the cap tightens, the price of a pollution credit goes up, making it more cost effective for companies to invest in cleaner technologies.

The "invasion" is just one tactic radical environmental groups are taking to push their agenda forward on climate change. Dina Cappiello of the AP just had an interesting story on the issue at http://www.topix.com/content/ap/2008/11/climate-crisis-energizes-radical-environmentalists

For more information on the grassroot groups that visited Environmental Defense's office, go to www.risingtidenorthamerica.org