Growing public concern over the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere by human society has given birth to a popular philosophy of carbon neutrality. People who are concerned about their contribution to global warming and climate change are beginning track and reduce their personal carbon emissions in an effort to achieve a personal carbon balance.
But carbon neutrality isn’t easily achieved by everyone. It requires a great deal of dedication and flexibility, and often isn’t congruous with the busy lifestyles many of us have adopted. For people who find themselves in this category but are nevertheless environmentally aware, buying carbon credits is a realistic and effective way to maintain carbon neutrality.
Carbon credits, also known as carbon offsets, allow people (or organizations) who generate carbon emissions to buy credits from or, in a sense, invest money in organizations and projects which reduce atmospheric carbon.
In other words, if your job requires you to fly three or four times a month, you can calculate your carbon contributions from those flights, and then buy the corresponding number of carbon credits from, for example, a tree-planting initiative, and bring your overall carbon contributions to zero.
Carbon credits have become a popular option for environmentally sensitive celebrities, like Brad Pitt, Jake Gyllenhaal, and the Rolling Stones, and ethically-minded companies and organizations ranging from the Olympics to the World Bank to the British government.
But carbon credits are affordable enough for the rest of us. They make great gifts, too. Check out the David Suzuki foundation’s website for details on carbon credit shopping.
Thanks to reader Lois Hardy, from Ottawa, Canada, for suggesting today’s Green Tip. .
