More on Carbon Offset Programs

Yesterday Jyle posted on ways to utilize carbon offset programs to help offset our carbon footprint.

Jyle rightly pointed out that carbon offset programs are not an excuse for polluting. We cannot “carbon offset” our way out of our current situation. It is merely, in my opinion, a stepping stone toward the fundamental changes needed to transform our society into a sustainable future.

As Jyle pointed out, many people love to engage in bashing Al Gore for any number of reasons, but in our context particularly for his energy use, thus dismissing anything says as disingenuous. Others look to Gore as a kind of global warming “messiah”.

Neither approach is particularly well-advised. Like any important issue, we need to seek out a variety of authoritative sources and form our own informed opinion.

When we begin to focus too much on the messenger, we risk losing sight of the message.

And when think that simply by using carbon offsets we have truly neutralized our carbon footprint we miss the message entirely.

The best carbon offset is not emitting the carbon in the first place.

And since we can’t realistically reduce our carbon footprint to nothing, I believe carbon offset programs are a vital tool in dealing with global warming and climate change.

Not all carbon offset programs are created equal, however, and care should be taken to insure that we are truly making a difference and not simply spending money to assuage our guilt.

A good outline of what to look for in a well-managed and effective carbon offset program is available in pdf format here from SustainableTravel.com.

Just using carbon offsets alone won’t solve the global warming problem; but it’ll help a little bit. And that’s what we all need to do. Just a little bit today. It can make a difference tomorrow.

Doing anything is better than doing nothing.

Source Material and Further Reading:
Global Warming, Karl Rove, and Toilet Paper
Al Gore Invented Global Warming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_footprint (image source)

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More on Carbon Offset Programs

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