First of all, 'What is Carbon Offsetting'?
A carbon offset is a financial instrument aimed at a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases.
Carbon offsets can be purchased to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by, for example personal air travel, car emissions, electricity we use and so forth. In 2008, about $705 million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market, representing about 123.4 million metric tons of CO2e reductions.
WHY should we be interested in Carbon Offsetting anyway?
Global warming is happening right now in front of our eyes. Our weather is changing. Every one of the hottest 15 years on record has occurred since 1980. There is now huge consensus among scientists that we face serious climate change – we just don’t know what level of severity it will reach or when.
We probably have about 20-30 years left to sort this problem out and we need to spend our efforts and money on actions that deliver the biggest and fastest CO2 reductions possible.
When fossil fuels and wood are burnt they release greenhouse gases that occur naturally in the atmosphere, making the average temperature around 15°C. Without this protective ‘blanket’ our world would be a much colder -18°C
However, the extra greenhouse gases that humankind has emitted have already significantly altered the composition of the atmosphere, adding to the blanket and increasing the average temperature of the Earth. This is causing human-induced climate change. To stop this spiralling out of control, we must radically reduce emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
An analgy
"You can think of offsetting rather like bailing out a sinking lifeboat to help it stay afloat whilst others fix the hole. There’s no point sitting back and waiting for the fix, you need to do something in the meantime, especially if the hole-plugging is taking longer than you’d really like!
Offsets are the bailing and should be viewed as part of the solution alongside government targets, reduction strategies and global regulation. Offsets are critical if we are to stay afloat long enough to sort the problem.
And the beauty of offsets is that it doesn’t matter where the emission reductions are made or where the initial pollution came from, as we’re all on the same earth and live under the same atmosphere. We source and fund projects where the biggest and most immediate emission reductions can be gained, from all around the world."
Flying is not the most major concern you should have - don't panic over your flight's carbon foot print. To put it into perspective, the airline industry is responsible for just 2% of the world's total carbon emissions, the shipping sector around 4% and the building industry as a whole 40%.
We would like to suggest to ALL volunteers (not just from Volunteer Compass) to use a Carbon Offsetting company to help our worlds' situation. Here is a link to JP Morgan's ClimateCare website. Visit their site (CLICK HERE) to calculate your offsetting.
Sources:
http://www.jpmorganclimatecare.com:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset
http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.html
http://law-ref.org/KYOTO/index.html
http://mindprod.com/environment/kyoto.html
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