On December 22nd 2002 Joe Strummer, the inspirational lead singe of punk group the Clash and arguably spokesman for a generation, died of a congenital heart defect.
For some time, I have been meaning to visit the tree plantation, Rebel Wood in Orbost, Isle of Skye, that was dedicated to Joe on his death by Future Forests the Carbon Offsetting company that Joe helped to seed fund following one of his infamous ‘campfires’ at Glastonbury Festival. Visitors to our office will know that I have a number of trees in that wood and readers of my biog (on the website) will know of my political inspiration brought about by The Clash and punk rock. It seemed fitting therefore, to take a few days out form the late festive rush to visit Skye, see Rebel Wood and the area that Joe’s maternal ancestors hailed from.
As with many things Joe was a bit contradictory on matters ecological, developing a keen interest in the issues of global warming but still delighting in cruising in his ’55 Cadillac when in LA or jetting the world on tours. I’ve read a lot about him and seen him many times and realise that, whilst he might have fallen down on detail, he genuinely believed that his actions had some positive purpose; in essence he tried to walk it like he talked it.
Carbon offsetting is of course a bit of an ecological hot potato. Understandably, there is a concern of the rich West failing to address it energy habits and simply buying off the ‘unused credits’ of poor developing countries. Not unreasonably, certain industries the media and music business in particular have had ‘green wash’ criticisms leveled at them indeed, even Future Forests, the owners of Rebel Wood have been adcused of sharp practice;(http://www.robedwards.com/2007/02/from_sunday_her.html ).
For me personally, I still see it as a relevant part of the overall mix in measures to tackle climate change. There is obviously a need to tackle behavior and I think that managing behaviour and consumption are far more important but there is certainly a growing market in carbon offset and climate change issues in particular and this is of relevance to the ethical investor. The issues are becoming such a market buzz that there has been a bit of a rash of new fund launches recently; all of this come under the broad banner of ‘Climate Change Funds’ which are basically offering investment in a range of climate change related technologies as well as carbon offset. We are still looking at these and think that many are a bit of bandwagon jumping – but if and when we find something of interest, we’ll let you know.
For now, I can report that Rebel's Wood is doing its job, growing Scottish native deciduous trees slowly and steadily in a beautiful location and marking the life of a truly inspirational man…………………..and yes, I did offset the trip!