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Carbon offsets working is when they make it so that producing carbon is expensive enough to change how companies behave. Of course, that could be done better with a number of other schemes like a carbon tax (with or without rebate)
- That could be done better with a campaign of targeted assassinations
  
  Ah, yes, ecoterrorism. A technique with a long history of failure.
- That could be done better without the private companies at all.
  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
  
  Like what zero carbon economic system? Or is this yet another case where communism just is assumed to magically work?
- Carbon offsets fund subsidies to make companies that do choose to use cost-innefective tech able to do so.
  The idea is that once people are actually using the tech, it will allow those industries to get more efficient, letting them close the gap in deployment costs. Eventually making it so it isn't cost prohibitive anymore with or without the subsidies.
  It's a carrot and stick system, instead of simply a stick system as you describe.
  
  The advantage with a carbon tax with rebate is that the tax comes from the entities that pollute, but the rebate goes back to everyone equally since everyone is harmed equally. Politically, it also means that there is a large group that is invested in that rebate remaining in place. Efforts to lower the tax or introduce loopholes must contend with widespread opposition. Unfortunately, uptake has been slow.

If hell is real and you get out by praying then this is not a scam. So if climate change is real and it is stopped by emitting less carbon then carbon offsets are not a scam?
So you are either saying climate change is just something to believe in and therefore carbon offsets are a scam, because they fight a problem that is not real.
Or you are a religious person and are saying that climate change is real, and that carbon offsets are useful, despite them being clearly a scam.
Or you are saying that the medieval system was actually a scam, because the monks did not pray as they said they would. But then this is actually a medieval meme, criticising monks for knowingly lying to people, and completely irrelevant in modern times.
- Or they're saying that regardless of whether or not heaven and hell are real, both carbon offsets and indulgences are a self-serving practice run by corrupt institutions allowing wealthy people to be publicly absolved from the harm they continue to do.
  
  If Good actions → Paradise
  Then Indulgences -(Enables the Church to do)→Good actions → Paradise
  Don't believe that people in the past accepted things without questioning them.

Carbon offsets are to preserve existing forests that would otherwise be cut down for lumber or reward a company for spending more to use nonpolluting tech. So, swing and a miss.
- Carbon offsets are ~~to preserve existing forests that would otherwise be cut down for lumber or reward a company for spending more to use nonpolluting tech. So, swing and a miss.~~ a scam made up by BP to shift the blame for climate change from big oil to the individual. So, to use your own words, a swing and a miss on your part.
  https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(21)00233-5
  https://www.vox.com/22429551/climate-change-crisis-exxonmobil-harvard-study
  https://direct.mit.edu/glep/article-abstract/14/1/59/14640/Counting-Carbon-The-Politics-of-Carbon-Footprints?redirectedFrom=fulltext
  https://mashable.com/feature/carbon-footprint-pr-campaign-sham
  
  The carbon footprint is bullshit, yes.
  But carbon offsets are basically what the European emission certificates are. I pay you money so I can emit more Carbon. You get money for not emitting Carbon.
  With the caveat that the emission certificates are actually enforced and lead to a reduction in carbon emissions, while private carbon offsets are sold by companies that may or may not ensure that the specified amount of carbon is actually offset.
- Oh sweet summer child.
- I know you said you don't want to watch videos where people explain the problems with carbon offsets while citing sources, but for those that do want to know, here's another video: The Carbon Offset Problem - Wendover Productions
  There are little regulations surrounding who can sell offsets meaning many companies vastly overstate their offsets (typically the ones selling the cheapest offsets, which are typically the ones major corporations buy).
  Even legitimate companies can overestimate how much help they're doing by accident. Say a company pays to plant an entire section of forest. It's calculated that section of forest will absorb 10 tonnes of carbon over 20 years. Nice! A year later that section of forest is destroyed in a forest fire. Does the company that bought the offset need to pay to replant it? Nope! They still get to say they bought 10 tonnes of carbon offsetting even when that's objectively wrong.
  The video I linked also talked about a company that tried to improve energy use in developing countries. Most places burn wood for cooking but often do it in open air. That's really inefficient! So this company provided efficient wood ovens to these communities (by charging others for carbon offsets). They then calculated how much carbon they've reduced, only to find out that these ovens increased the amount of wood burned since the communities loved using them so much! However, once again everyone who bought the offset still gets to claim they reduced carbon!
- I wish I had your naivety in life.
  https://youtu.be/EIezuL_doYw?si=wQ8TU8wIXhd2uNvL
  
  No, I'm not watching a youtube video and pretending it is information. Talk about naive.
- If you actually believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.

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