COEYMANS — When a clutch of local officials and dignitaries gathered in late 2019 to celebrate the first check they received for protecting the woodlands around the Alcove Reservoir, they hailed the deal as a win for the environment locally and globally. The Albany Water Board had agreed to protect the approximately 6,400 acres of forest around the reservoir in exchange for annual payments from the sale of carbon credits.

It was one of the first local examples of an emerging market in carbon credits, or offsets, designed to protect forests, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and combat global warming.

The carbon capture represented by preserving the forest was sold on the American Carbon Registry, a leading market for such credits.

Figuring that most of the doings in climate change amount to hucksterism, I don't see the harm in local governments profiting off it. Indeed, maybe this kind of climate change hucksterism can be transformed into a force of good, protecting forest and farmland from development. For example, a town or developer could sell development rights in exchange for carbon credits cash. And maybe long-term preservation of an ecosystem is more important then some inconsequential reduction of carbon. And certainly better then paving over acres and acres of land for a solar farm that doesn't even produce that much electricity compared to a conventional fossil plant.