Carbon Neutral -- Word of the Year!

The New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2006 is Carbon Neutral... Lots of talk but is it the/a solution? Here it is from, Michael Sandel, Harvard's political philosopher: “Carbon offsets will become, at least for some, a painless mechanism to buy our way out of the more fundamental changes in habits, attitudes and way of life that are actually required to address the climate problem.'' ''If someone drives a Hummer and buys carbon offsets to salve his conscience, that is better than driving the Hummer and doing nothing, but it would be even better to trade in the Hummer for a hybrid. The risk is that carbon offsets will make Hummers seem respectable rather than irresponsible, and distract us, as a nation, from harder, bigger changes in our energy policy.''