Charging climate change to future generations

To much fanfare, GE launched a new rewards credit card that, instead of giving chargers cash back or frequent flier miles, puts their penny toward carbon offsets. They've even launched a web site to support the card that includes educational information about reducing a person's climate impact (complete with carbon calculator), information about GE's sustainability efforts, and (of course) an application for the card.

Of every dollar a consumer spends with the card, GE will invest one penny in carbon offset projects. In order to give the program some legitimacy, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and GreenOrder (among others) were tapped for its development.

According to the New York Times:

G.E. is keeping everything about the card as green as possible. It is spurning paper applications, insisting that people apply online or by phone. Although by law it must send paper bills when asked, it is encouraging cardholders to receive and pay their bills online. It plans no direct mail and will advertise on search engines like Google and on environmental sites like treehugger.com.

But apparently, GE was careful not to oversell the card, which is a theme I'm hearing more and more in green communications. Joel Makower, who is affiliated with GreenOrder has a lengthy post detailing the work that went into the card's development. He ends it by saying he'll take Incremental realism versus radical change when it comes to fighting climate change.

If the idea of using a credit card to combat climate change makes you a little uneasy, you're not alone. Marc Gunther (who was at the GE press announcement) is skeptical about shopping your way to a cleaner planet and says so in his CNNMoney.Com column as well as his blog. If you look at many of the comments on Makower's blog, most of them aren't buying the card either.

I say a credit card is a perfect metaphor for the entire climate change debate. We're dedicating one percent of our resources to a serious problem and then leaving it for future generations to take care of. I don't think that was the metaphor GE was after, but the card certainly helped clarify it for me.