Wednesday, March 28, 2007

green for green

Yesterday I paid my very first carbon offset. It feels like I'm a member of a hot new club - well let's say cool new club, because that's the point. I paid $6 to compensate for the carbon I'll be releasing into the air by attending the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in Portland Oregon this June. Here's the language from the registration form:

"Donations will help offset the carbon footprint of the GA by supporting climate-friendly projects through the Carbonfund.org Foundation."

I especially like their tree-planting projects. Who wouldn't like more trees?

$6 was the suggested donation, so don't think I'm a cheapskate. The biggest release of carbon in this trip will be from the plane engines during my roundtrip flight from Los Angeles, not while I'm actually attending the event in eco-friendly Protland and riding public transportation, so it's a token gesture. And why was the offset voluntary? Why not just add $6 to the registration fee and include a note that "$6 of the registration fee will be used to help offset the carbon footbprint of the GA...?"

I suspect we will start to see a lot more of these carbon offset fees. I was happy to pay it.

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