Green Your Travel With Carbon Offsets
Posted on Dec 31, 2007 - 08:43 PM
By: Adam Beazley
Traveling, weather by plane, train or automobile is a very carbon and pollution intensive activity. While many hardcore environmentalist will say not to travel except by train, sometimes that is just not an option. When not traveling is not an option, it’s best to offset your traveling emissions with some sort of carbon offset. Carbon offsets can best be described as an environmental credit which someone can buy to “offset” their own greenhouse gas emissions, when one is unable to or unwilling to reduce their own emissions.
The best known examples of carbon offsets are tree planting and clean energy offsets, which compensate for car and air travel emissions. A wide variety of offset methods are in use, however tree planting has been the mainstay of this industry. While tree planting has been the most popular and most used offset, it has also come under the most scrutiny. Here at Neutral Existence, we do not believe that tree planting carbon offsets are a valid form of offsetting carbon emissions simply because trees are carbon neutral not carbon negative. We discuss this in much more detail in the following article: Tree Planting Carbon Offsets
The social push to become carbon neutral has drastically increased the popularity of these voluntary offset programs. Carbon offsets are cheaper and easier alternatives to reducing one’s own carbon emissions, which has created a bit of tension in the environmental community. Many environmentalist object to the entire principle of carbon offsetting, while others only object to particular types of offsets and certain individual projects.
We at Neutral Existence do NOT believe that carbon offsets are the answer to our problems. Offsets should not be used to buy off ones responsibility as a citizen of this earth and to continue to live an inefficient lifestyle. We believe that carbon offsets should only be used to offset any remaining emissions after trying your best to reduce your own emissions. In other words, offsets should only be used to offset things out of your control. For instance, if you have to go on business trips and you must fly, then sure buying an offset in this circumstance is recommended and not frowned upon. However, buying offsets so one can continue to live the way they were living before is basically a cop-out, as no attempt has been made to reduce ones own carbon emissions.
When choosing a carbon offset company, it is very important that you choose a reputable company. Unfortunately, many new “scam” companies are popping up every day ready to take you money but not follow through with the promised use. Find companies with transparency, companies that openly show and list their many different carbon sequestration projects. This way you will know exactly where your money is going and trust that it will actually be making a difference.
As a service, we at Neutral Existence will research new offsetting companies and keep an up-to-date list of “legitimate” carbon offset companies. Our criteria for inclusion will be primarily based on the types of projects that these companies finance. We do not believe that tree planting offsets bring much value, therefore we will not include any tree planting offsets in the list below.
Legitimate carbon Offset Companies:
- 1: Terra Pass - number one on our list simply because they are involved in very diverse and helpful projects, most of which deal with clean energy, biomass and industrial efficiency.
- 2: Easy Being Green - Easy Being Green is an Australian company that has a little different approach. They actually do home and commercial building abatements, in which they reduce the effects that homes and buildings have on the environment.
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Show/Hide Comments (1)
By Ecotourism in South America Guide on 02/07/2008
It’s perfectly possible to outweigh the negative environmental impacts of a flight by adjusting one’s behavior once you arrive at your travel destination - it’s called ecotourism. You don’t need to plant trees, or pay a company to do that for you.
Just visit genuine ecotourism projects (eg. jungle lodges where your actual presence benefits the environment), donate to local conservation charities etc. Do it all wisely and your ecotourism holiday will have an overall positive impact on the environment. Travel responsibly!
