Comment by internet_points
Comment by internet_points 4 days ago
Are there any good charities that buy up green land for the sake of not doing anything to it? From what I've read of carbon capture economics, it seems a frillion times more effective to simply not chop down more forest compared to investing in carbon capture (though I'm not saying we shouldn't do both)
Yes, the Nature Conservancy is a large nonprofit that buys lands to hold in its natural state, albeit not at the scale needed to offset industrial activities. They tend to focus more on qualities like undisturbed ecosystems, or biodiversity, than climate change.
And in the U.S. at least, many states have a concept of a conservation easement where you get a tax advantage by promising not to disturb or develop land you own. This is used by some wealthy individuals to lock up a bunch of land undisturbed. But again, so far it is not remotely close to offsetting the overall human behaviors that are forcing warming. (As evidenced by the directly measured rising CO2 levels and temperature anomalies.)