Send message to Author

Paper Short Abstract:

The success of carbon offsets has led others to replicate its design motif (reify->measure->certify->sell). However despite early success, carbon offsets have received scrutiny. Here I examine the ways multispecies ethnography, AI and permaculture design could improve offset market design.

Paper Abstract:

In an attempt to mitigate the socio-environmental challenges of the 21st century, investors and policymakers have invested in the issuance of various credits to offset activities that damage the environment or reward those that protect, remediate or regenerate. The relative success (USD 87.9 billion in 2022) and visibility of carbon offsets has led other entities to replicate its design motif (reify->measure->certify->sell) across such diverse environmental aspects as biodiversity, water quality and methane. Despite its early success, however, carbon offsets have recently received scrutiny for dubious accreditation practices, fraud, price dumping, questionable efficacy and unacceptable human/environment tradeoffs, all of which suggest the design pattern has yet to be adequately refined. This paper examines the ways in which a synthesis of multispecies ethnography, artificial intelligence and permaculture design could improve offsets markets, a seemingly important step toward green transition. If successful, it would be possible to shape a system to equitably connect the local and the global, the tenuous present and livable futures. My analysis begins by taking an economic anthropological lens to the idea of reifying environments, then proceeds to a critique of the current market and concludes by proposing research activities, technological platforms and permaculture design approaches to fill gaps in the current paradigm.