No, don’t offset your carbon footprint!
Why pay for carbon emissions?
Would you like to offset your carbon emissions on this trip?
We often see this question when booking a flight or hailing a ride. Should we be answering affirmatively? No!
What is carbon offsetting anyway?
The idea behind carbon offsetting is to contribute to environmental causes to cover the damage done to the environment for a given event, such as a flight from point A to point B.
There are entire companies calculating individual contributions to environmental pollution (they estimate CO2 emissions). Then there’s a calculation of what needs to be done (usually planting trees) to offset this contamination of the ozone layer. And it comes with a price tag.
Does offsetting work?
Surely, there’s nothing wrong with planting more trees. At least, I feel that few will disagree with me. We also know that plants and trees do clean the air.
The issue with offsetting is that you need the planted tree to survive and to grow to actually take in all of that CO2. It takes time, but more trees lead to a happier planet.
So what’s wrong with it?
There is nothing wrong with donating to an environmental cause. Especially if it’s a verified and credible organization.
The problem is the fact that in the 21st century, with the environmental knowledge openly available, the companies offering travel services should be the ones burdening the costs of offsetting carbon emissions. They certainly are making a profit and can afford to offset their CO2 contribution.
If we as consumers begin to choose service providers that voluntarily offset their CO2, then we will push the idea to become an industry-wide standard. And we can take our money and contribute it to other worthy causes. Or make a voluntary contribution to help control CO2 emissions.
