Carbon Offsetting
One of today’s hottest topics (no pun intended) is undoubtedly that of carbon offsetting, as more and more people recognise the possible contribution made to global warming by carbon dioxide emissions due to fuel consumption by aircraft.
Most commonly, the proposal is made that one should calculate the carbon cost of any particular flight that you take, and then donate an appropriate amount to a charity that will plant a sufficient number of trees to offset this. We have to say, that as more and more politicians jump onto this bandwagon, we are not 100% convinced by the arguments put forward. Indeed, writing in the Daily Telegraph, the humorist (and politician), Boris Johnson, has proposed that, rather than planting a tree, we should instead kill a cow, since the greenhouse gases (methane – whose effect is 24 times more deleterious than that of carbon dioxide) produced by these animals globally far exceeds those created by flying. We can’t assess where the truth lies: Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, claims that airlines contribute only 2% of the total of world emissions, while, in contrast, the environmentalist George Monbiot advocates the actual closure of airports in order to combat this effect.
However there can be no downside in individuals sensibly setting out to compensate for the effects of the flights that they take by contributing to companies that will invest their money into some ecofriendly product of their choice. We say ‘sensibly’, since the large number of companies that have sprung up to cater to this market inevitably means that some are motivated in different ways to others. Typing ‘carbon offsetting’ into Google will produce a plethora of companies from which to select. Each will enable you to calculate exactly how much money you should contribute to achieve this purpose, based on the journey to be undertaken.
Which to choose? Well, a recent article in the Daily Telegraph newspaper identifies the following companies as among the top tier of carbon offset providers.
- The UK-based Climate Care – www.climatecare.org
- The UK-based Carbon Neutral Company – www.carbonneutral.com
- The US-based Native Energy – www.sustainabletravelinternational.org
- The US-based Climate Trust – www.climatetrust.org
