Nuclear backsliders, Catholic 'indulgences' and refinery regret

Reliance on carbon credit offsets is all too reminiscent of the medieval Catholic “indulgences”, where you were able to pay money to offset a sin. (Image: Getty)

Warren Couillault

Sat, 27 May 2023

A theme has been playing on my mind for the past couple of years – the dangers of blinkered ideology and the wonderful phenomenon of the “law of unintended consequences”. Wikipedia defines “unintended consequences” as "outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen”.It would be fair to say that the 20th century was built on fossil fuels, certainly in the earlier part. It was cheap, dense and easily extracted energy. Think of the work that could be generated by a single conta...

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