Green Guides - How To Green Your Carbon Offsets

What's the Big Deal?

Newspapers, radio, television, magazines, blogs, podcasts, in fact any media you can think of, has awoken to the issue of Climate Change or Global Warming. When mainstream publications, the likes of Sports Illustrated and Vanity Fair, cover the topic you know there is something going on. Not to mention that a documentary full of graphs, statistics and grainy photos of glaciers can scoop an Oscar. And thousands of eminent scientists, the world over, sign a document concurring that there was 90% certainty that the planet has a temperature and it is a human induced fever. To reduce the patients prognosis of increased convulsions; such as hurricanes, droughts, floods, heat waves, etc; experimental treatments are underway.

One of these is carbon offsets. Carbon dioxide, a significant greenhouse gas, is emitted into the atmosphere as a result our intensive use of fossil fuels like oil and coal. In simplistic terms this is bad. One means of doing good is by paying to balance (or offset) the equation, by funding projects that reduce our emissions of carbon (and other greenhouse gases). If only it were as simple as it sounds.

Carbon Offset Tips

• Jan 18, 2008 10:29 AM CST

  Green Your Carbon Offsets - Getting Techie

  What is Carbon dioxide and why does it matter? It's the chemical union of one carbon, and two oxygen atoms (hence CO2), mostly appearing as a gas. In fact one of the key gases, along with nitrogen, oxygen, argon and water vapour, that constitute the air we breathe and thus the atmosphere that acts as skin separating us from deep space.

• Jan 18, 2008 10:28 AM CST

  Green Your Carbon Offsets - By The Numbers

  The market in carbon offsets, which allows companies to invest in renewable energy as a way of mitigating their own greenhouse gas emissions - almost doubled in 2006 to $5 billion, the World Bank said on 2 May.

• Jan 18, 2008 10:26 AM CST

  So You Wanna Do More To Green Your Carbon Offsets?

  Take part in The New American Dream's Turn the Tide Campaign or join in the Stop Global Warming Virtual March at stopglobalwarming.org, or even the Global Cool workout.

• Jan 18, 2008 08:35 AM CST

  10 highly effective ways to go greener

  1. Offsets Won't Save Us The only reason to buy carbon offsets is to compensate for the greenhouse gases you contribute to Earth's atmosphere, that you can't change in any other way.