Carbon offsetting for real

Incentives work, but they need to be right ones, says Adrian Ulisse

Back in the days of the British Empire in India, the authorities in Delhi discovered they had a problem: too many snakes. Specifically, too many cobras. They settled on a plan. A cash reward would be offered for every dead cobra that was brough to them. At first, the plan seemed to work. Hundreds and then thousands of snakes were killed and handed over. The only trouble was, there seemed to be no end to it. As time passed, more and more cobras were being killed and the numbers never got less....

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