Sierra Club Outings and Carbon Offsets
Isn't this just "greenwashing"?
You've read it in the news: Celebrities are flying all over the globe in
private jets, then assuaging their guilty consciences
by buying offsets. Airlines and utilities are going "carbon-neutral."
Some offset vendors are making obscene profits and contributing less than 20% of
revenues to projects. So are carbon offsets nothing but "greenwash"? We have
to admit, we were a bit skeptical ourselves, so we did our homework before
deciding to offer an offset program. Here's what we concluded: Yes, there are
offset providers out there who are not delivering on their promises. This is a
new industry, and while there are several organizations that are trying to
establish standards for offset quality, the industry is currently largely
unregulated. So unless you really look closely at projects and ask lots of
difficult questions (which we did), it's hard to tell whether the money you
spend is actually doing any good. We are also highly skeptical of
anyone who claims that carbon-offsets are a "silver bullet" that will solve the
global warming crisis. This simply is not true. As consumers, we will need to
make difficult choices in the coming years to reduce our personal carbon
footprint. We will also have to pressure our politicians to vote for real,
far-reaching legislation that will reduce our dependence on "dirty" energy.
Carbon offsets are merely a small part of the solution. Nevertheless, we
decided that the offset model has merit, and we believe that with NativeEnergy,
we have created a program that has a net positive impact on the energy landscape.
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