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BANG FOR THE BITE
If 10,000 Biters offset their yearly carbon emissions, it'll have the effect of planting 3,538,462 trees.
COCKTAIL FACT
In some countries, tag players pretend that getting tagged carries some form of contagion, such as the plague (Italy), leprosy (Madagascar), and fleas (Spain).
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home › tip library › Carbon Offsets
What's the easiest way to pull your CO2 weight?
The Bite
Join the green-tag team. When you buy green tags (aka carbon offsets), you neutralize the pollution that your home, car, and travel create. So team up on your carbon-heavy habits, and start offsetting.The Benefits
- Mitigating pollution. CO2 offsets fund projects that have a positive eco-effect, thereby nullifying the negative effect of the pollution you create.
- Peace of mind. You don't actually get anything tangible (except for maybe a bumper sticker), but you sleep easier knowing your addiction to flying to exotic places can be carbon neutral.
- Investing in your fave causes. Different programs benefit different projects, so you can choose to fund anything from solar panels in African villages to sequestering the methane from cow farts.
Personally Speaking
While the Biter team offsets a lot of the C02 we create, we got a kick out of this British spoof about offsetting cheating.Wanna Try?
- TerraPass - supports wind and biomass projects (turning methane from cows and landfills into energy).
- Carbonfund - non-profit offsetter that supports solar and wind farms, promotes cleaner industry, and plants trees around the world.
- Native Energy - supports Native American alternative-energy projects.
- Consumers' Guide to Retail Carbon Offsets - not all offsets are created equal. This report rates your provider options (PDF).
- Climate Counts - compare the carbon-cutting commitments of several major corporations.
Sep 21,2007
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All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.
Ready, Offset, Go!
After wasting hundreds of hours of my life driving around in circles looking for street parking (parking spaces in downtown San Francisco run in the $300-$400 range per month), I decided to become a real urban girl. I sold my car, signed up for FlexCar, and invested in a few versatile pairs of walking shoes and some MUNI passes. The carbon I emit during my commute is from breathing alone. To boot, Ideal Bite is offsetting my plane travel this year. Not too shabby.
As the video we included in today's Personally Speaking points out, offsetting alone isn't the end all be all solution to our global-warming problems, but it's a start, and it sure feels good.
-Jenifer Morgan...off to walk past people driving around in circles...
As the video we included in today's Personally Speaking points out, offsetting alone isn't the end all be all solution to our global-warming problems, but it's a start, and it sure feels good.
-Jenifer Morgan...off to walk past people driving around in circles...
Biter Comments...
Personally, I was only able to reduce energy costs by about 50% this year. However it took moving to a new house to do it. The old house we were living in was a rental and we couldn't make the changes needed to reduce energy usage. It was poorly maintained over the years and at 1000 sq ft. took over 3 times what it should have in energy. Now we live in a newer home that is 1400 sq. ft. and uses less energy.
Our carbon usage is around 10 tons annually now. I hope to reduce it even further by replacing the freezer, clothes washer and dryer with energy efficient models. I also purchase 200 tons worth of green tags from Native Energy every year. I feel their projects are substantial and am all for helping the tribes of my ancestors become self-sufficient.
Most people, including me, are more likely to speak up when peeved, so just so you know I'm not all negative, I love most of the Ideal Bites. =) Keep up the good work! Carbon offsets are a pet peeve for me, and have been looking forward to Alternate Energy Tips all week, so this one is just a double whammy for me. =)
At best, this has very little to do with Alternate Energy, so I am a bit disappointed this morning. Please save such things for other weeks in the future.
However, my main reason for writing is that I agree with Greg above, and would like to emphasis the point that carbon offsets are a bit of a cop out. For now, they are a good way for people with more money than time and interest to do something, which is good because it is better than nothing. However, for example, paying some foreign country to plant trees that they should be planting anyway because they cut/burned them down in the first place is not as effective as spending that money on planting trees in your own back yard. How does that slogan go again, "Think globally, act..."
As a side, I also doubt that the efficiency with which the trees are planted is very high, not to mention that if the area were just left along to allow vegetation to grow in naturally, it would have the same, if not a better, CO2 absorption rate. You want a super easy way to make a difference? Stop mowing your lawn. ;)
I don't like the term neutralize, because your GHGs are still going out there, no matter how much money you spend on other people's problems. Some carbon offset programs are a good way to spend your tax deductions, but it does not mean you should not always be looking for ways to reduce your own emissions. I'm preaching to the quire, I'm sure. =)
Sorry for the double post, but Wayne's post came in while I was writing, so I wanted to add that clearly there are exceptions, and Wayne has the absolute right idea about how to spend money on carbon offsets.
Go wayne!
I was excited when I first heard about carbon offsets, because my family lives far away and I wind up taking at least one long-haul flight a year. But after doing a bit of research it seems like carbon offsets aren't the miracle cure we thought they were.
This article (http://www.newint.org/features/2006/07/01/keynote/) in the New Internationalist suggests that offsets are a temporary fix, as the trees only hold carbon for a while, that offsets contributes to large-scale (and unsustainable) tree plantations, and also that poor environmental managing means offsets just don't work.
What does Ideal Bite think of this? Are offsets really a lost cause?
One of the problems with offsets is that you are buying renewable energy credits from projects that ALREADY exist. How is this "neutralizing" your carbon emissions?
I don't really think it is. If they were actually using the money to replace coal power plants and construct new solar, wind, and methane-powered plants to replace the fossil fuel-produced energy, then I think that would be actually reducing your carbon footprint.
I'm torn on carbon credits. I think it's good because it creates awareness, but at the same time it's a false sense of having done something good for the Earth. It's definitely most important to reduce your carbon emissions as much as possible first. And THEN use carbon offsets if you have to.
This story in the LA Times uncovered some of the waste/redundancy in the carbon offsetting programs:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/
la-sci-offsets2sep02,1,249680.story?
ctrack=3&cset=true
(s/b all one line so cut and paste the link)
Oh, that CheatNeutral site is brilliant! Here's a link to the Daily Mail op-ed that the guys read a piece from in the short film: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/newscomment.html?in_article_id=441458&in_page_id=1787&in_a_source=
Not all offsets are a lost cause, but those used to grows trees are suspect for the reasons sited above and more. If a carbon offset program is near and dear to you, then it is very worth considering. Outside of that, it is likely to be more difficult to research than it is worth, IMHO.
The main thing to remember about vegetation, and any vegetation will do, is that it only holds the CO2 while it is alive: it is released again eventually one way or another. If a plant dies and is replaced with the same volume of vegetation, then the CO2 is recaptured. So, the key is to increase the global volume of vegetation in the long term.
Now, the easiest, and probably most efficient, way to increase vegetation in a given natural area is to leave it alone for a long time. It is probably more effective to spread around some seeds of canopy plants (trees) so that they fill in faster, but rigorous planting is pretty much a waste of time and, in the case of offsets, money. You don't have to bury an acorn to get an oak!
With all that said, it is far more effective in the short term to prevent the existing plants from continuing to be destroyed by the acre. So, if you are thinking of paying some one to do the work nature will do without out help anyway, then think again, and buy some rain forest land instead to preserve the work that has already been done.
Renewable Choice Energy http://www.renewablechoice.com/ offsets your energy use with wind energy. It's only $5 a month for an individual. Check it out!
I notice that in tips like these, what is probably the best way to reduce one's carbon footprint is never mentioned: not eating meat!
"eating a vegan diet prevents the equivalent of 1.5 tons of CO2 emissions every year, more than the 1 ton of CO2 emissions prevented by switching from a typical large sedan to a Toyota Prius"
http://www.chooseveg.com/global-warming.asp
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3312
Here's some other ways to help offset your travel footprint:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/offset-your-travel-footprint.html
I'm glad many of us are pointing out how rediculous carbon offsets are. I'm happy that our society is looking towards finding solutions but we can't possibly buy our way out of global warming. If you're a committed environmentalist who is addicted to flying to exotic locations, then stop flying all the time, don't buy your way out of feeling guilty. There are plenty of ways to see our planet without flying all over the place. Ggrrrrr!
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Greg | September 21, 2007 at 06:28 AM