Sticker Extortion
Say Anything blog
Wired - In Washington, DC, eco-vandals smear SUV door handles with dog crap. In Santa Cruz, California, protestors tag more than 60 gas-guzzlers with anti-oil graffiti. In Los Angeles, a Caltech grad student is sentenced to eight years in prison for trashing more than 120 SUVs around the city. It’s almost enough to make you feel bad for SUV drivers. After all, some of them are green, too - just not as hardcore about it.
Now they have TerraPass, a clever eco-capitalism experiment. Launched by a group of Wharton Business School classmates, the startup sells a decal that drivers can slap on their windshields. The sticker price - $79.95 for SUVs, less for greener cars - gets invested in renewable energy projects and credits. The credits are traded through local brokers on the new Chicago Climate Exchange.
In order for the enviro-wackos to stop vandalizing my car I have to buy a sticker from them? How, exactly, is this different from protection money paid to the mafia?
Its not so much that I’m against this idea per se, I just don’t like the implication that people are going to be influenced into buying these stickers by the idea that the presence of one on their windshield will protect their car from rampaging hippies.
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