Carbon Offsets

Have you ever heard of carbon offsets? This fairly new concept is aimed at "canceling out" the carbon emissions of one object, by increasing the carbon dioxide intake of another object. Carbon offsets are meant to reduce net greenhouse gases and help fight global warming. They can be "purchased" from commercial and non-commercial entities by anyone who seeks to balance out the carbon emitting that they do. Most carbon offsetting is done by planting trees, contributing to renewable energy funds, protecting the rainforest, and many more carbon reducing methods.

Okay, pretty simple concept but my question is, does this really work and should we do it? Each average resident of the United States creates approximately 44,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year from fossil fuel usage. Each tree (average tree in the rainforests of South America) removes about 50 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year; therefore, each American needs 880 trees in the rainforest to offset their carbon emissions. I guess that you can say that a program like carbon offsetting works, but I think that it takes away from the core issues at hand. It seems that Americans can now silence a guilty conscience, much like we have with other issues in our country. Instead of the average American cutting back on energy consumption, it seems that they now have a way to "make it all okay". It can be compared to politicians who go to Alaska to have their picture taken next to a baby seal, just to go back to D.C. and vote for a law that would end up harming the environment.

Don't get me wrong, I think that carbon offsets are a great way to help relieve global warming but I think that they be a ticket to live a fake green lifestyle. Buying a Hummer in July, and paying $100 in December to have 10 trees planted does not make the environment any better. I think that the first step in offsetting carbon emissions should be to start at home and work out in a circle. Once you have reduced emissions as much as possible at home, then move out to the drive way and work on getting more environmentally friendly cars. Once you've done that, you can organize a monthly cleanup of a local water source or run a local community presentation on reducing carbon emissions. The important point is that we start reducing emissions before worrying about balancing them out. We don't want a standstill on global warming....we want progress.