[atula]

offsetting your carbon footprint has become a big business right now with many companies and sites offering people to buy a particular area wherethey will plant more trees etc. just so that the counter act helps nullify what they emitted as greenhouse gases.Now my point is, is it really worth it? Some scientistsare arguing that though a noble thought and action the effect will only happen after hundreds of years, results will not be delivered right now....so what to do you say about the whole offsetting thing?

[HereToday]

Planting a few trees can't hurt; keeping people aware of their carbon footprints (freetprint?)is a very good thing as well.
If however, offsets don't prove to be useful towards the environment, they will become extinct eventually.

[Laughingmouse]

I think the offset isn't a good idea.

I saw this show on The History Channel , if memory serves, that talked about the money being used to put iron in the oceans to grow plankton. I can see issues developing with too much plankton and not enough animals that consume it, we don't know if seeding the ocean with iron will work as well as it has been sold to us, and an offset doesn't serve to change behavior.

I just have a ton of doubt.

[Lyndsey]

If you're offsetting is restricted to planting trees then that may not be enough since theytake a while to be large enough to do the job. There are other carbon offset programs that involve building alternative energy projects, etc.