Love in the Time of Carbon Offsets
I’m at that stupid age where all your friends decide to get married at once. You know how it is: where you get to pretend that you LOOOVE pink silk bridesmaid dresses (I do love it, Rebekah!) and that you are excited to celebrate unity and togetherness ad nauseum by flying around the country for frantic three-day visits. Being the nerd I am, I’m not actually concerned about retaining my mental sanity in the midst of the summer of love. Honestly, I’m concerned about my carbon emissions.
Seriously. I bought this plane ticket a few days ago and was offered the option of, for $5.99, purchasing a one trip “TerraPass.” Apparently, with my four trips this year, I am using 129 gallons of fuel, and producing 2,527 lbs of CO2! TerraPass offered me the option of paying to offset these appalling numbers and using that money to fund wind farms, landfill gas capture, and the like. These seemed like worthy causes so I paid my carbon dues for the flight, but I still felt sheepish and slightly evil about flying in the first place.
A few days later, in the mail I received a TerraPass postcard with a sticker on it, which apparently I could use to “spread the word about how easy it is to be a carbon-balanced flyer!!” Except I don’t want a sticker. But they’re not recyclable, so I stuck it on my bookshelf and threw out the rest of the post card since it was all sticker-y. I went on the website to potentially offset the rest of my flights, and discovered that if I spend enough money, I get a FREE PLASTIC LUGGAGE TAG! Curious, that an offset company would offer free useless plastic things rather than something sweet and sustainable like a friendly e-card or maybe planting a tree in my honor.
And then I received the burn of all burns. While sitting on my couch staring at my itinerary and trying to justify why TerraPass really did make me a good person, swish, into my e-mailbox flew a note from my friend Freya with a link to www.cheatneutral.com. Augh! The world is making fun of me through hysterical web pages about offsetting my infidelities! Fine! You win! Carbon offsets are as fake as cheating offsets. And although TerraPass appears to be doing some valid things to help the environment, most carbon offset programs seem a little hokey, like we’re pawning off our excess on some poor third world counties who aren’t allowed to develop their pristine lands because we’ve already ruined all of ours. Obviously I also appreciate conserving untouched areas, but until our carbon offsets go to preserving the ANWR, I think I will accomplish my environmental atonement another way. If anyone wants to spend the entire summer biking from one state to another in chiffon dresses, let me know.
5 Responses to “Love in the Time of Carbon Offsets”
Finally, someone is seeing this carbon offset stuff for what it is. A marketing game. The best carbon offset you can buy is, just like you say, bike more, conserve where possible and recycle everywhere you can. Carbon offsets are a way of making people feel good ” although well intentioned ” that really just create a misconception that this is the solution.
The solution is much tougher for all of us. It entails having the common sense to attack the root problems that an unsustainable growth in population will eventually resolve on it’s own if we don’t. Yes, maybe we should all consider flying less and finding the great travels closer to home. Traveling because “you can” is not a good reason. Make the trip memorable and special and infrequent. I think we could all enjoy what is around us much more if we just take a minute to buy your own carbon offset buy staying a little closer to home just a little more often.
Not that I have an opinion or anything… Thanks for the very thoughtful post Vera.
Great post. Here’s another excellent article from GOOD magazine on the same topic:
http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Features/buy_now_pay_later
Vera:
Sorry you had a bad experience at TerraPass. We’ve worked hard to provide an option to receive no luggage tag, both with partners like Expedia and on our site TerraPass. Some people like a little something to show that they are “doing their bit” and we provide that. But if you don’t want it, we won’t send it to you. If you are still unhappy, drop us a note and we will refund your purchase (and still accomplish the reductions).
You should be congratulated for doing your bit. Part of waking up to climate change is realizing that your carbon footprint is not something you simply stop (like cheating) but something that needs constant attention to get lower and lower each year. There are hundreds of things along the way to help, including sustainable clothing. But at the end of the day, you’re still going to have a footprint. What TerraPass offers is a simple way to balance that out with near term (no trees) permanent third party verified reductions. It is not a solution, just a tool to use on your journey to being sustainable.
Tom Arnold
Co-Founder, TerraPass
To Tom (and all readers)
I hope I made it clear that although I feel like carbon offsets in general are a little on the imaginary side, I think TerraPass actually explained how they offset the carbon in a far more valid way than most carbon offset companies, and the only thing I found odd about the company was that they’d offer plastic prizes (and stickers, which aren’t particularly sustainable) as an incentive prize or advertising method. I don’t know that I actually had a bad experience with TerraPass, I just am on constant alert for greenwashing efforts, and am trying to avoid getting duped by them.
Thanks for the clarification about this particular business. I commend anyone making an effort in the direction of sustainability, and would rather help someone take steps in this direction than discourage them.
Vera
I know just what you mean with the confusion from TerraPass, Vera. I work at HP in printer customer research, and everyone I know tries to do the best job we can to know our customers and what we think will help the company, including getting greener. But corporate dictates and a whole bunch of other messed up stuff end up resulting in decisions that don’t always accept and in some cases belittle or ignore what we work so hard to make clear. Meanwhile we grumble to each other about how our company still doesn’t understand its customers. But we all mean well. I’ve gotten everyone reading about green everything, and our friends believe us…
I don’t know how our situation will work out (though I suspect younger, smaller, faster companies will eventually eat our lunch) but two years ago I was disgruntled on the outside looking in and now I see how complicated it is to coordinate a single, clear message from the inside. Praise the companies that are able to do so, and trust that there are those in every other company trying to move them in the right direction!
Daniel
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