Carbon Offsets: Serious Solution or Eco-Hype?
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 09.04.07 | 12:53 PM ET
As we’ve noted before, more and more travelers are buying carbon offsets to counterbalance the effects of carbon emitted during their journeys. But just how much good does it do? On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times became the latest publication to take a critical look at carbon offsets, questioning their effectiveness. At the center of the paper’s report is the notion that the carbon offsets industry is “clouded by an approach to carbon accounting that makes it easy to claim reductions that didn’t occur.”
The story continues: “Many projects that have received money from offset companies would have reduced emissions by the same amount anyway.”
The article cites numerous examples of the questionable impact of carbon offsets, including those purchased by the makers of the Al Gore documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
An environmental economist at Harvard told the newspaper: “Everybody would like to find happy-face, win-win solutions that don’t cost anything. Unfortunately, they don’t exist.”
Related on World Hum:
* Carbon Offsets for Travelers: What Are You Really Paying For?
* Green Travel: ‘Who’s Scamming, Who’s Legit and How Do We Know the Difference?’
Photo by greengobbler via Flickr, (Creative Commons).