Comments on: Think You Can Offset Your Carbon Footprint? Think Again

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:51:07 +0000

Well, its a provacative post for sure! And for me anyways, it does raise questions around how much carbon offsetting is actually greenwashing for large organizations. These climate change related topics never really get to the bottom of the actual issue at hand, which is carbon emissions. An extremely simple example of this is the number of cars we all see during the morning and afternoon rushhour commutes……cars with ONE person in them. That is a personal, lifestyle choice. Carpooling and public transportation are options available that are akin to carbon offsetting. Until people decide to start making these changes in their own lives, carbon offsetting is moving one step forward two steps back.

By: Mandy

Mandy — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:47:04 +0000

Hi Ted,
I agree with you! Well, I agree with everything except the part that this is a horrible blog. If you go back and reread the post, hopefully, you will also see that we are in agreement.

The whole purpose of the post is to say that “offsetting” isn’t the answer. It is merely a band-aid. Anyway you look at it, planting a tree is not going to offset CO2 emissions your Hummer is putting out.

I have had a look and yes, there are some really great organizations that are out there trying to help but let’s face it, the only way we are going to reduce are carbon footprint is by reducing our carbon footprint, not offsetting it.

Thanks for contributing your opinion
Mandy

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:44:03 +0000

Oh dear! A terrible blog I am afraid.

1. You completely misinterpret offsetting. Lets say you do a fantastic job of cutting your carbon emissions by 50%. What do you do about the remaining other 50%? Ofsetting is what you do about this remaining 50%. If you find emissions reductions projects elsewhere that take you net carbon emissions to zero then you have offset this 50% of emissions that you presumably could not avoid.

2. Offsetting is not about trees. Proper offsetting involves renewable and energy efficiency projects (and sequestration) where the carbon finance is the difference between the project happening or not. THere are a host of great projects which are being funded right now in developing countries- biogas, methane to energy, run of the river hydro, efficient cook stoves, wind and so on… Open your eyes – have a look http://www.carbon-clear.com or http://www.jpmorganiclimatecare.com

Look climate change is an enormous issue and we need to use everything in our armoury. No single action will be enough. So please lets talk about ANDs not ORs.

So lets slash our usage, encourage the business we trade with to do the same, plant trees, and invest in carbon emission reduction projects in developing countries so that they can follow a low carbon and sustainable path to development.