Carbon Watch

CIR and FRONTLINE/World track the emerging market in forest carbon offsets. In this FRONTLINE/World segment (broadcast May 11) CIR senior correspondent Mark Schapiro and producer Andres Cediel travel deep into the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon, where they discover what life is like on the other end of an offset deal.

The fate of the world's tropical forests is a contentious issue as the U.S. debates a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. American companies want the ability to meet limits by purchasing forests and agreeing not to cut them down. In a two-part series on the public radio show Marketplace, CIR explores what a forest offset looks like on the ground, in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, and the impact of a forest offset on the people who live there. Part one of the series airs 2/25; part two airs 2/26.

Mark Schapiro's cover story in Harper's Magazine is an investigative journey into the heart of the fastest growing commodity market on earth: carbon. He reveals the critical challenges of measuring a commodity based on a promise of future greenhouse gas emissions, and the implications for the cap and trade system likely to be voted on soon by Congress. Schapiro recently spoke on Marketplace and NPR's Fresh Air.

An organization representing some of California’s biggest carbon polluters is working to alter the state’s global-warming law, while claiming to represent several “green” environmental companies that have since left the coalition after learning of its recent actions.

The top 100 carbon dioxide-producing facilities in California generated 101,890,944 metric tons of CO2 in 2007, according to data recently released by the California Air Resources Board. We¹ve mapped that data to show where the 100 largest polluters are located. Power plants and oil refineries appear to be the largest culprits.

In the new economy created by global warming, forests are turning into a valuable commodity. Promising not to cut them down is one of the most popular ways companies would like to offset their emissions. Correspondent Mark Schapiro follows the trail of one of those offset projects deep into Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.

On Brazil's Atlantic coast, people with some of the world's lowest carbon footprints are being displaced—so their forests can become offsets for U.S. corporations. CIR's Mark Schapiro reports for Mother Jones. The media NGO Project Word provided support for this article.