In "The Audit" the government takes drastic action in effort to slow and eventually put an end to global warming. The government finally was done with trying to deal with the situation on their own so they forced it upon the people. In this there was a loophole found. An individual could continue his lifestyle if he were to have a polar opposite individual sign off their portion of carbon emissions. Causing Bill to seek out Goodwin causing Bill to eventually realize his life wasn't all he thought it was.
For me this story hits home on two levels. The first level is with the environment. If our society ever got to the point where they tried "sell their sins" of carbon dioxide emissions everything will fail. The system entirely would tear society apart. Global warming can't be solved by selling away our emissions. We have to has a society stand together and reduce our emissions to help slow global warming. At this point according to McKibben we can only help reduce the future impact of global warming and learn to deal with the current effects of global warming.
The second level that this story hits on is looking at your own life and not being happy with it. My first two years of high school I was extremely overweight and I mostly stayed in my room. I eventually realized there was more to life and started seeing the world. The world is a beautiful place. It's not worth sitting behind a desk or living a suburban lifestyle. It's meant to be explored. We as humans are meant to experience Earth as it was made. Not as how we are molding it to achieve our personal visions.
You make an interesting point about "selling our sins," Nick. In fact, I was disappointed that Bill could essentially sell his sins by getting Goodwin to vouch for his lifestyle and make up the difference. It would have been interesting to see an alternate ending where the family has to figure out how to cut back and then we could see what they actually did to make change.
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