if Americans are united in any conviction these days, it is that we urgently need to shift the country's education toward the teaching of specific, technical skills, expand STEM courses (science, technology, engineering and math) and deemphasize the humanities
I'm pretty sure that's far down on the list of convictions that people in the United States are united on. More like a fad that's popular in some circles.
It's a choice either way. The question is, who makes the choice?
Your suggestion seems to be that some all powerful authority mandates what choice everyone else must make.
GP's suggestion is that enough people can be talked into making the altruistic choice to make a difference.
The problem with your argument is that the alternative to generating electricity with fossil fuel isn't growing trees. We still need to generate electricity.
What carbon credits do is tax the polluter and reward the non-polluter. The non-polluting alternative becomes a more cost effective way to generate the electricity we need.
Hackers of the world, unite!