Posted by
BLOGASSAULT on Monday, May 28, 2007 3:37:59 PM
There are some people in this world who feel bad about driving their vehicles and contributing to the
"carbon footprint" that each of us supposedly leave. To combat this, they go to places that offer tree offsets.
Places like
lovetrees.ca are helping to "clear the air" so to say, with all the pollution that are cars create. You simply use the online calculator to figure your carbon output and then they translate that into how many trees you need to purchase and have planted. You then get a certificate making it okay to drive again.
But as the article suggests, it is all very well and nice, but wether or not your actually offsetting the correct amount is not clear.
And how much carbon dioxide a tree can soak up varies, said John Kadyszewski of Winrock International, a nonprofit that works on environmental projects. A huge California redwood might have 30 tons of carbon stored while a 100-year-old pine might have less than a ton. I would suppose there is nothing wrong with this. Just don't allow yourself to feel guilty. Do it because you want too, not because you feel guilt-ed into it by your friends or because of all the over-the-top media coverage about the coming doom of the planet. Don't buy into that.