Buying a new car? That'll be 20 trees, please.

[tinrobot]

The Brazilian Câmara dos Deputados is discussing a bill which will make planting trees mandatory as a means of paying fees for certain legal proceedings. Which ones? Getting married, getting a divorce, buying a new car or trading estate.

For example, if you want to get married, you would have to pay to plant 10 trees (25 if you later need a divorce). When purchasing a car, you would need to plant 20 trees, 40 if it's a light-duty van or 60 if it's a heavy vehicle. When trading estate, 10 trees would be required to sell a house, 20 to sell a business.

The idea is that all these activities harm the environment and so we should give something back. The law aims to recover the rainforest and offset the country's carbon emissions. Conservative estimates from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics calculate that about 65 million trees would be planted per year under the proposed rules.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/06/18/buying-a-new-car-thatll-be-20-trees-please/

[Kutjara]

1. I can see a lot of sense in the principle, but...

...they've picked some odd activities on which to levy a "tree tax." The car-related stuff makes sense, but how does selling an existing house or getting a divorce harm the environment?

[DCKit]

2. Obviously you've never been divorced. Or married.

Toxic waste, silly.

[Kutjara]

3. Marriage produces toxic waste?

Depends who you're married to, I guess. :shrug: