Is carbon offsetting a good way of limiting my environmental impact?
Carbon offsetting is an increasingly popular way for individuals and organisations to reduce their carbon footprint. Offsetting funds projects can reduce deforestation and also encourage sustainable development in poorer countries. Critics however argue that offsetting emissions merely enables people to clear their consciences and carry on polluting as before. Its effectiveness is equally contested, as there is no regulation of companies selling offsets and therefore no real guarantee that emissions will really be compensated for. Measures such as planting trees are useful only if the trees are cared for indefinitely – if they die, the carbon they sequestered during their lifetime will be released back into the atmosphere as they rot. In sum, carbon offsetting may help to mitigate your environmental impact, but to make a real difference, it is far preferable to burn less fossil fuels in the first place.
