We’re staying at a condo right now here in the People’s Republic of the Berkshires. It occurs to me that the rich folks who built second homes here might be environmental Heros rather than demons, at least a little.
These condos use a lot of lumber that was grown for the purpose of building homes. When those trees are growing, they take in a lot of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. And if they ended up as biofuel or paper or just died then they would release their carbon dioxide right back into the atmosphere.
However if the trees are harvested and turned into 2x4s, then much of that carbon remains sequestered for quite a long time. In other words, the rich dudes building vacation homes are reducing carbon emissions on net. How many green projects can boast such a thing?