Oscar gold, that is… Last Sunday, An Inconvenient Truth won Best Documentary. Bravo!
If you haven’t already seen it, I recommend doing so. You may think it to be too extreme, and maybe it is. But it will leave you thinking about the environment and your impact on it.
And if you’re still not convinced about seeing An Inconvenient Truth, then read what Leonardo DiCaprio said [paraphrased]: “It’s every American’s moral obligation to see this film.” (I read this in an interview he did with GQ; and NO, I am not a frequent reader of GQ as I am not a man.). Do it for Leo!
Since realizing that I am (almost) singlehandedly causing global warming, I have been looking for a way to reduce my carbon output. Since most of my output is from flights, flying less is an obvious choice. But since I need to fly for work, it’s not that easy. What else can I do? Carbon offsets!
Carbon offsets are great. You pay a company like Terrapass a bit of money, and they make you feel better by using that money on projects that either
reduce the amount of carbon that someone else generates, or
remove CO2 from the atmosphere by doing things like planting trees.
Different offset organizations are better than others.
Offsets that focus on reducing emissions are better than those which focus on using trees to soak up carbon. (because “we know little about how forests store carbon in the long run, especially with the predicted climatic changes.”)
They also have recommendations of what offset companies are the best to work with.
My overall takeaway from all this is that carbon offsets are better than nothing, but they aren’t a cure-all. You’re going to still need to think about reducing your carbon output.
Is my folksy colloquial style not compelling enough for you? Well according to a report called, The Carbon Myth, “offsets place disproportionate emphasis on individual lifestyles and carbon footprints, distracting attention from the wider, systemic changes and collective political action that needs to be taken to tackle climate change.” More to come.
Did you see the latest AC Nielsen poll which indicates that 13% of Americans have never heard of global warming??? That equates to roughly 39M Americans.
This is absolutely bewildering. I have no words. No…words…
So, have you heard of American Forests? (Me neither, until recently.) Founded in 1875 and the nation’s oldest nonprofit citizens conservation organization, they work to “protect, restore and enhance the natural capital of trees and forests.” They have an ambitious goal to plant 40 million trees by 2007.
You can help them achieve their goal by donation – for every $1 you give, they will plant a tree. You can even select a campaign so that your dollar goes toward a region or cause that you are passionate about.
Check out the 10 reasons why you should plant trees. Pretty cool, eh? When you look at all their benefits, how can you not heart them?
So you know how if you don’t work out for a while, and you’ve pigged out on a few too many buffets, you’re afraid to get on a scale? (Is it just me?) Well I felt the same way about measuring my carbon impact, and for good reason! I am a a slob!
After playing around with a few sites, including the Inconvenient Truth calculator I ended up using the Road, Flight and Home tabs at Terrapass. It seemed more precise - although that’s probably the topic of another post.
Anyway, the results were grim. My final tally 40,500 lbs of carbon last year. According to climatecrisis.net, the average for Americans is 7.5 tons, which is only (only!) 15,000 lbs. That means that I am 270% higher than average. I make me sick.
As you can see by the chart below, by far the largest impact I have comes from flying.
I’ve made a few long haul flights, and travel from San Francisco to NYC on a semi-regular basis. And true, I don’t really drive that much (8,000 miles / year in a Civic) but it’s still pretty amazing that 82% of my carbon contribution is airlie travel related.
JB may argue with me, (she’s busy shopping with reusable bags for gods sake) but the takeaway for me is that I’ve got to tackle the flying issue before I do anything else. More on this to come . . .
Carbon offsets are great. You pay a company like 
Did you see the latest 
