It has often been said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. In the case of the recent trend of “carbon credits,” we’re looking at reruns of the 16th century practice of selling indulgences.

One of the more recent fads in environmental movements have been the purchase of “carbon offsets,” designed to absolve sinners (or in this case, polluters) of their errant, wasteful ways — a practice embraced by the perennially trendy businesses looking to burnish their green credentials, and environmentally-conscious affluent individuals who don’t necessarily feel like adjusting their lifestyles to accommodate their rhetoric – including certain unnamed Nobel laureates.

The basic idea of carbon emissions credits is in “offsetting” the amount of carbon dioxide one puts out by purchasing credit from particular vendors, usually who then invest the money in eco-friendly activities like replanting forests and developing alternative energy technologies. As the theory goes, one can be “carbon-neutral,” if only they cough up the dough to pay for their sins in eco-conscious ways.

Of course, the environmental movement is hardly the first to capitalize on the notion of buying one’s way out of sin – the Catholic Church had already beat them to the punch by nearly half a millennia.

One of the major causes of the Martin Luther’s revolt (leading to the Reformation) was the popular practice of selling “plenary indulgences” – essentially, a scheme designed to allow sinners to “buy” penance for sins confessed. Scholars for the Church contended that sinners weren’t getting a “get-out-of-Hell free” card, but simply practicing an alternative form of penance – one which just happened to fill up the coffers of the Church.

Much like the indulgences of old, buying one’s way into carbon-neutral Heaven doesn’t even have to come with any sincere contrition at all. Feel bad about jaunting around in your private jet but don’t want to give it up? Hate feeling guilty about living in your palatial estate but don’t want to be forced to rub elbows with the plebes? Buy some carbon offsets! Why live the ascetic life that one would force everyone else to live when with enough cash one can simply buy their way out of guilt?

And thus we come to the crux of the carbon credit scheme – as a means to allow “socially conscious” individuals to continue to live lives of excess while railing on the wastefulness of ordinary folks. That stink you smell is the stench of hypocrisy.

Just as Luther contended that man is saved by faith alone and not by good works, so too should this lesson apply to living green.

Investing in alternative energy sources and replanting forests are clearly inarguable goods – but they’re also actions that should be done for their own sake, not for the sake of “buying” oneself a clear conscience. In that sense, one who truly agonizes over their impact on the environment should start by re-examining their own lifestyle – not by trying to buy their way out of (environmental) Hell.

It shouldn’t take another 95 theses nailed to a door (or perhaps in this case, a tree) to figure this one out.