more on carbon offsets

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For Ecologically Sensitive Americans, a Way to Pay the Way out of Global Warming

Guilt

 

December 13, 2006 — By Terence Chea, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- Jill Cody used to feel guilty whenever she drove her car or

flew on an airplane. She worried about pumping heat-trapping carbon dioxide into

the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

 

But the San Jose professor found a way to ease her conscience. She paid a San

Francisco company called TerraPass to offset emissions from her car and air

travel by investing in wind power and reducing farm pollution.

 

" I'm part of the solution, not the problem, " said Cody, who sports a TerraPass

decal on the decade-old Lexus she drives about 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometers) a

year. " Now I don't feel guilty when I drive my car. "

 

As anxiety over global climate change rises, a growing number of companies and

nonprofit groups are offering eco-conscious consumers a chance to compensate the

planet for the carbon emissions they generate when they drive, fly, use

electricity or heat their homes.

 

So-called " carbon offsets " are becoming increasingly popular, but critics say

they are just a way to assuage consumer guilt and do little to combat climate

change. At worst, they can encourage consumption by preventing people from

making carbon-cutting lifestyle changes, such as driving less, taking public

transit and using less electricity.

 

" We're still in a buyer-beware situation where people have to be careful and ask

some questions, " said Mark Trexler, president of Portland, Oregon-based Trexler

Climate and Energy Services. " The key question is _ is your money helping to

make something happen that wouldn't otherwise happen? "

 

Firms that sell such offsets help consumers calculate how much carbon their

activities generate, then pledge to counterbalance the environmental impact by

restoring forests, forcing businesses to curb emissions and funding renewable

energy such as wind and solar.

 

For example, the Conservation Fund, an Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit that

restores wilderness on unproductive farmland, lets consumers offset their

emissions by paying to plant trees. The group has a partnership with online

travel company Travelocity that gives travelers the option of making a donation

to the fund when they buy plane tickets.

 

It costs about $4 (euro3) to offset a ton of carbon, and about $80 (euro60) to

offset the 20 tons of carbon the average American generates in one year, said

the fund's Chris Fanning. Each tree absorbs more than a ton of carbon over a

100-year life cycle.

 

" It allows people to take personal responsibility and action in their own

lives, " Fanning said.

 

Backers say carbon offsets can help make people more conscious of climate change

_ and show policymakers that Americans want the government to take action to

stop global warming. Experts predict the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases

is leading to extreme weather, melting snowcaps, species extinction and rising

seas.

 

San Francisco-based TerraPass is another of more than 30 companies and nonprofit

groups that promise to ease global warming guilt by selling carbon offsets.

 

The firm tells drivers that for $49.99 (euro37.65) they can make up for the

12,000 tons of carbon a typical sedan or station wagon produces in a year. Ford

Motor Co. encourages buyers to offset emissions from their new cars through

TerraPass.

 

TerraPass has a complex formula for calculating how much it costs to offset a

certain amount of carbon, and the company keeps a portion as profit. It charges

customers of Expedia.com $5.99 (euro4.50) to neutralize the carbon generated

from one seat on a 2,200-mile (3,500-kilometer) flight, $16.99 (euro12.80) for a

cross-country flight and a $29.99 (euro22.60) for an international flight.

 

The money is used to fund projects that generate clean electricity from wind,

landfills and cow manure, and the offsets are verified by the Center for

Resource Solutions, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that works to increase the

demand for renewable energy, said Tom Arnold, TerraPass's chief environmental

officer.

 

Arnold claims his company has counteracted the effects of 165 million pounds of

carbon since it was founded by a University of Pennsylvania professor and his

students two years ago.

 

" It helps you think differently about climate change and what you can do to

fight it, " Arnold said.

 

Yet some observers note that increasing renewable energy doesn't necessarily

reduce the use of conventional electricity sources that emit carbon. And while

trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere, the process is spread out over the

decades of a tree's lifetime.

 

People concerned about global warming should first do everything they can to

reduce their personal emissions _ and only buy offsets for activities for which

there are few green alternatives such as flying, environmentalists say.

 

" It's not a license to pollute, " said Craig Noble, spokesman for the Natural

Resources Defense Council, which offsets emissions from its employees' travel.

" The idea is not to buy a Hummer and then at the end of the year buy offsets for

your driving. "

 

Carbon offsets are not new. Utilities, power providers and other corporations

have been buying them since the 1990s to comply with state laws requiring them

to compensate for their emissions or prepare for future federal regulations.

 

In recent years, corporations have bought them to burnish their green

credentials. The North Face, an outdoors supplier, and grocery chain Whole Foods

have offset emissions from their stores and office buildings. Organizers of the

Super Bowl, Winter Olympics and Dave Matthews Band tour have promised to make

their events carbon-neutral.

 

Now the trend has caught on with environmentally minded consumers like Larry

Coury, a New York patent attorney who doesn't own a car, rides the subway to

work and pays extra so his home electricity only comes from renewable energy

sources.

 

Coury's job requires frequent travel, but there are no carbon-free alternatives

to flying. So he paid extra to offset the emissions for a recent flight to West

Virginia that he booked through Travelocity.

 

" It makes me feel a little bit better, " Coury said, " to take whatever steps I

can to address global warming. "

 

Source: Associated Press

 

 

History repeats itself

and each time the price gets higher