The environmentally friendly Vatican
The Vatican is announcing it will become the world’s first carbon neutral state. Could we expect any less?
The International Herald Tribune reports that the Vatican has tried to reduce it’s emissions, installing solar panels, but now wants to lead by example by offsetting all of the emissions it creates from lighting it’s St. Peter’s Basilica, heating offices etc.
Their offset plan involves reforesting a 37-acre patch on an island by the Tizsa river, which should cover for all of the emissions the Vatican creates. This carbon offset comes as a donation from the Hungarian company Klimafa.
“Later this year, Klimafa will begin clearing the weeds, using local labor, and then start environmentally sensitive planting of saplings that are native and will thrive in the local environment. These include willows, beeches, ash, certain poplars and oaks. The growing forest will absorb 10 times the carbon that the land currently absorbs, and will be self-sustaining, Torda said.…it will take 50 to 150 years to produce a mature forest. Once that happens it will be less effective, since mature forests contain decaying trees that release CO2, as well as growing trees that absorb it. Also, there are pitfalls that will need to be avoided. Too much plowing, for example, releases carbon from the soil, which reduces the beneficial effect.
…After the Vatican agreement was announced, Monsignor Melchor Sánchez de Toca Alameda, an official at the Vatican’s Council for Culture, told the Catholic News Service that buying credits was like doing penance: “One can emit less CO2 by not using heating and not driving a car or one can do penance by intervening to offset emissions, in this case by planting trees,” he said.
But some critics derided the Vatican for planting trees rather than trying to rein in energy use in Rome. The Vatican did not have to pay anything for the Klimafa program, although the donation is only for 2007, and does not cover air travel.
Just last week, the Vatican began sponsoring low-cost flights for pilgrims from Rome to holy sites like Lourdes (”More convenient than a 22-hour train ride!” one priest said on Italian television.) Plane travel is hugely polluting.”