ABSTRACT
Sometimes a symbolic act by a giant corporation can seem like a provocation, and sometimes, as in the case of Peugeot planting a small forest in a deforested area of the Amazon, the action is a significant enough symbolic act to render more credible whatever else they are doing to make their automobiles less polluting. In creating their carbon sink, Peugeot established an international partnership with French and Brazilian forestry officials, as well as with the local residents who are employed by the project. The carbon sink in the Amazon is a civic action on the part of a planetary corporate citizen. If all large corporations whose products contribute to global warming would do as much, deforestation in the Amazon or in Malaysia might be reversed. As a proviso, however, we offer an analysis of what the Peugeot carbon sink represents in terms of actual compensation for carbon emissions.
