I love to travel, but I hate to fly. Did you know that airplanes pump out more than 600 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year? That’s nearly as much CO2 as the African continent annually emits. No wonder flying has become, for many, climate change’s Public Enemy Number One.
Despite my aversion to flying, I find myself on a plane from time to time. Eddy and I recently flew to Charleston, South Carolina, to visit his family. We decided to buy carbon offsets to balance out our emissions (and to stop me from whining about all the CO2 emitted by our travel).
We bought our offsets from Carbonfund.org. Carbonfund.org is a nonprofit organization based in Silver Spring, Maryland, that provides carbon offsetting and greenhouse gas reduction options to individuals, businesses, and organizations. Carbonfund.org purchases and retires certified carbon offsets on behalf of its donors. Donors are given a choice of project type to which they may donate, including renewable energy, reforestation, and energy efficiency projects. Carbonfund.org is a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange and is a Founding Member of the American Carbon Registry.
Since this was our first time buying carbon offsets, I was bracing for a couple of hundred dollars to balance out emissions from our travel. Well, it cost us $13.89. Now, that’s affordable. I’ll let the readers guess to which project we donated.
I found buying carbon offsets to be easy and painless. I’ll continue to reduce my carbon footprint, but, as Carbonfund.org says, what I can’t reduce, I will offset.
Interested in offsetting what you can’t reduce? Visit www.carbonfund.org.
GreenAR by the Day 