THE CLIMATE IS SAFE WITH US

Great news! Climate Care, the carbon ‘offsets’ company has been bought by US bank JP Morgan: ‘integrated into JPMorgan’s existing world class Environmental Markets group’. Clearly the climate offsetting business has finally come of age. Climate Care has already been branded a greenwasher, after working with many travel companies and other corporations - including Barclays and a division of Shell - to ‘offset’ their polluting activities. Now Climate Care (sounds like a detergent to use on clouds, doesn’t it?) joins one of the world’s biggest banks, with $71bn in revenue for 2007, and which boasts some of the top political, industrial and oil company figures among its advisory and management board. With the same financial companies investing in both CO2 production, and its ‘offsetting’ surely this climate change problem will get cleared up in no time.

UNEMPLOYED LAYABOUT NETS MILLIONS

No, not another newspaper headline attacking the poor, but the pay-off for the former head of Northern Rock. According to the Financial Times, Adrian Applegarth will receive ‘compensation of at least £760,000’ while looking for another top job. These generous unemployment benefits from the UK state’s bail-out of Rock will probably not be extended to the 2,000 Northern Rock staff set to lose their jobs. Applegarth will also receive ‘a further £346,246 top-up to his pension, taking his pension pot to about £2.62m’ - as well as a preferential rate on his Northern Rock mortgage. He has also received between £5,000-10,000 for added security at his Northumberland home. What on earth could he have done to make people resent him so?

SUNK IN THE OCEAN

Terrible news, I’m afraid. Planktos, the brave, brave, company that had planned to sort out global warming (and make a healthy cash profit from carbon credits) by dumping up to 100 tonnes of ‘iron slurry’ in the ocean as part of a far-sighted and not at all potentially catastrophic ‘carbon capture’ scheme has itself been totally sunk. A Planktos press release states that ‘Due to widespread opposition to plankton restoration in the environmental world, the Company has encountered serious difficulty in raising the capital needed to fund a series of ocean research trials.’ with the result that the CEO, Russ George, has resigned, and the company’s ship and headquarters are to be sold.