There was a time when I liked to regularly listen to NPR for their stories. And, I owe a certain something to NPR since that's where I first got interested in bitcoin. But, their incessant political hard-left, alt-left push eventually pushed me away. Nowadays, I'll sometimes listen in just to get annoyed at whatever silliness they're projecting.
January 9, 2025, I heard this: https://www.npr.org/2025/01/09/nx-s1-5228194/what-are-biodiversity-credits-and-could-have-a-meaningful-impact talking about "Biodiversity credits." I'd heard of "carbon credits" before, but never biodiversity credits.
Evidently, some "financial instrument" is being sold for $25 a pop as a "biodiversity credit." I assume the sales site is this one. With one credit purchased, your $25 gets you a promise from...someone. The promise, or "assurance", is to protect a 10 x 10 square meter splotch of Andean mountainside where the spectacled bear lives. The spectacled bear? I was unfamiliar with the spectacled bear, but evidently it's a bear that looks like a large raccoon and likes to scratch trees.
The NPR folks ponied up $25 for the so-called biodiversity credit financial instrument. After their purchase, the NPR journalists apparently traveled to Colombia, to the "water star" area where the alleged preserve exists as "El Globo." Okay, three things here:
- They only buy <u>one</u> biodiversity credit? How's a spectacled bear supposed to live on a 10 x 10 meter square?!
- I'll assume the journalists (I read this as plural since the article said "we"; I'll guess two people) flew from the US to Colombia. Are listeners/readers to just ignore the fact that they flew on a carbon-emitting jet to Colombia for the sole purpose of checking on a 100 square meter plot? This is the plot of land that exists supposedly to house animals threatened by supposed climate-caused deforestation, like jet exhaust? Are we to just pretend this hypocrisy is not there?
- Are we to ignore that the plane tickets for two (not to mention room, board, and travel while visiting Colombia) could rather have been spent to buy more than one biodiversity credit and to ostensibly save more land?
I've got to say, this sounds like a $25 ticket to win a prize for an all expense paid trip to the Colombian Andes to see the exotic spectacled bear. Credit to those who pulled off this $25 trip to the water star region of Colombia; nicely done. Okay, maybe NPR had correspondents already in Colombia. Either way, first, it didn't sound that way in the report and secondly, there's more to the numbers.
According to the "climatetrade.com" website (that name, wow!), there are 310,000 biodiversity credits to be sold. Let's do the math:
310,000 credits times $25 for each credit comes to $7.75 million. El Globo is 340 hectares of land (that's 840 acres). $7.75M for 840 acres is $9,226 per acre.
Knowing zero about land value in Colombia, that still seemed high to me. Google Gemini AI informs me the median price is much lower. It reported this:
According to available information, the median price per acre of land in Colombia varies significantly depending on location and land quality, but generally falls within a range of $1,500 to $10,000 per hectare (equivalent to roughly $365 to $2,400 per acre).Google Gemini
What's more, this is not for protection of the land in perpetuity...no, this is for 30 years only. Say what? This sounds to me like somebody's career plan: 30 years of protection, retirement, then I can't guarantee the land's protection after that. More likely, somewhere around about the 20 year mark, it will be time to start to re-up and start selling credits again. Well, at least these 30 years of protection are "verified by an independent third party." That should make us all feel better.
For a second opinion on numbers, I asked the AI, Microsoft Copilot. It said with $7.75 million USD one could buy a lot of land: between 7 and 16 thousand hectares. That's a lot more than the El Globo preserve of 340 hectares.
Understand, this is actually purchasing the land. If you purchase it, it can be held as a preserve forever, not just for 30 years.
And, speaking of money, and funding, and choices made in spending that money, remember that NPR gets US government money to operate. They take great pride in running hours-long annual fundraisers to ask you and me for public donations while giving "commercial-free programming." Yes, they literally run hours-long commercials for a week or two each year to say that they run commercial-free programming! 😆 You can't make this up. Nevertheless, NPR gets about $34 million from the government annually according to Microsoft Copilot AI.
NPR seems to go to lengths to downplay this government funding. It's a mess. NPR apparently says they get "less than 1%" of their $300 million annual budget from the government. (Disregard the fact that every other radio station supports themselves 100% and gets 0% from the government.) But, this 1% looks as though that's only money directly from the federal government. There is a larger chunk coming in via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which is also government money. The CPB funds "member stations" and those stations pay dues to NPR. Somehow, this government doesn't count in NPR's eyes. So, despite the "1%" talk, it's still government money funneling to NPR. By masking this fact, NPR is making the whole situation look shadier than it is. It might do well to simply be up front about government funding rather than obfuscating it and making the whole thing look shady; "the cover up is worse than the crime," as they say. All told, the Copilot estimate is $33.9 million in government funds going to NPR annually (about 12% of their budget, not 1%). The other 88%, I guess, comes from donations by regular folks, foundations, and corporations who respond to the hours-long, weeks long annual fundraiser commercials about commercial-free programming.
Anyway, $33.9 million in government money, and $300 million total when you count in donations. That's a lot of hectares of Andean biodiversity credits that could be bought. Actually, NPR could have bought them all and the bears would be safe for 30 years. Also, as to those reporters who trekked to Colombia for a visit, that's a pretty good tax-supported, listener-supported gig that they pulled off: buy one "biodiversity credit", get a vacation to the Andean forest to see bear scratchings.
It gets worse. The outfit selling these biodiversity credits on https://market.climatetrade.com admits that $7.75 million is a lot of money for Moms and Pops to purchase all the credits. (I still can't get over that URL, at least it's honest by flat out stating they're making a market out of trading the climate.) They say they need corporations to chip in and buy mass credits. According to the report, they have meet-ups and shin-digs for this sort of thing, apparently. A favorite line for me in the piece was "...Handing out shots to promote a jaguar credit."
Image created at https://leonardo.ai with the prompt: "well-dressed folks at the soirée laughing as they down a shot of tequila and suck a lemon in salute to said jaguar"
At this point, it seemed that these various credits were and are spinning off into something very much like the multitudes of memecoins...doge, dog-wif-hat, dog-wif-cat, dog-wif-pepe, pepe-wif-maximus, maximux-wif-spectacled-bear, spectacled-bear-wif-jaguar. Seriously, we have credits (tokens), we have "tokenomics" of a max supply and emission, we have a market to buy the the credits/tokens ICO-style. I wonder if there is a secondary market where NPR could unload their one biodiversity credit if they were to go full climate credit degen. I pictured in my mind the well-dressed folks at the soirée laughing as they down a shot of tequila and suck a lemon in salute to said jaguar in the report. "Jaguar credits to the moon!"
To be fair to NPR, they did include one man's counter to biodiversity credits. Mark Opel said this:
At the end of the day, companies are in the business of generating shareholder value. There is not a business case for biodiversity credits to generate shareholder value beyond a token amount of philanthropy and marketing.
That was some much-needed concise analysis and clarity, a voice of reason. The only value these credits bring to companies was "a token amount of philanthropy and marketing." So, we have two value transfers going on here:
- The "El Globo" outfit gets value by making money on climatetrade.com...$7.75 million if all spots sell, only to be re-upped again in 30 years. Somebody is getting paid.
- A company can get value by feeling good for saving spectacled bears and thereby looking good in the public eye. It gets feel-good press.
Here's the bottom line...
This story checks many of the boxes for an NPR listener. It's a mix of climate change, saving cute and furry animals, deforestation, fighting corporations who want to exploit the land, and feeling good that you did something for these things. I see why they chose to send reporters to Colombia for this story. This story fits the narrative.
Placebo Credits
Let's play this thing out.
Since the purpose of these credits is to (1) transfer money to some outfit and (2) make companies, or you, feel good and look good, then let's do this...
I want you to think of something that is wrong in this world right now. Think of something you feel is terribly unjust. Maybe it's the spectacled bear being pushed out by greedy corporations, or a baby polar bear swimming aimlessly searching for an ice floe, or maybe something else, like the blue footed booby. Maybe it's land being clear cut or burnt off or walls of ice breaking off into the ocean as lonely icebergs. Perhaps it's all the sad downtrodden puppies that could use your help. They are cold, they are hungry, they are sad. They are looking at you. Picture those puppies in your mind now.
To rectify whatever bad thing you are thinking of, whatever wrong you wish to help right, you can now buy Placebo Credits (PCs). Placebo Credits will make you feel that you are in fact doing your part; that you are truly making a difference in this world. Placebo Credits work.
To buy Placebo Credits, send bitcoin to the address below. One bitcoin satoshi will buy you one credit. Don't cheat yourself...the more PCs you buy, the better you will feel knowing that you are making a difference in this world.
Get Placebo Credits here: https://coinos.io/pay/crrdlx
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And, why only make a difference in this world? Don't constrain your imagination. Don't constrain how much you help the world and how much you help yourself in the process. Look up, look beyond, look to the stars. When you look at the stars tonight, pick one out. Pick out any of the beautiful stars above. It's twinkling at you, it's calling out to you...then help save that star. Buy Placebo Credits to help save your chosen star. Then, every night from today onward, you can look up at your shimmering, twinkling star. Let it remind you of your fight against all the wrongs that exist and your push toward a more just and verdant world. When you look at your star, let that point of light buoy up your resolve, and say to yourself, "I did my part...and I can do more."
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/crrdlx/AJkKL6ifVxz9B2ur6U56payuDy1oLRH7bUWLfpbaddpzVpC9SS3Pymio1DV36Xa.jpg
Source: leonardo.ai using the prompt: "beautiful stars shining brightly in the night sky creating a sense of wonder"