Can you buy your way out of hell with carbon offset fees?

Carbon offset fees work like penance in the Roman Catholic Church. They won’t exactly prevent you from committing certain sins, such as traveling by plane, but they might make you feel less guilty about committing them. At least that’s how they work on me.

Confessions of a selfish traveler

Last year, I spent roughly 190 hours flying and by doing so I generated 46,69 metric tonnes of CO2. Probably enough to get me a first class ticket to Hell courtesy of Greenpeace. Other than traveling by air extensively, I try to be good to the environment. I recycle, live in a small apartment, use public transportation and energy-efficient light bulbs.

According to the Stern report, the aviation industry accounts for only 1,6 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity generation accounts for 24% of global carbon emissions, deforestation accounts for 18% and road transport accounts for 10%. And that’s forgetting bovine flatulence.

Still, I can’t help but feel guilty about my contribution to it. Every time I fly now, I try to add the “carbon emission offset” fee whenever the airlines offer it. I figured it was about time to find out where my money is actually going.


US airlines: the good, the bad and the non-green

A couple months ago, I read a shocking statistic on e-photoframes: of the 374 global airlines, only 24 of them offer passengers the ability to purchase carbon offsets and “clean up” the CO2 emissions from their flights. That is not the most shocking part. The most shocking is that only 1 percent of all US airlines sell CO2 offsets. The US has 175 airlines with listed websites but only two of them–Delta and Continental–currently offer voluntary carbon offsets to their passengers. Although a few other airlines came out with “green plans,” only Delta and Continental offer carbon offsets so far.

What does Delta offer?

When you book on delta.com, you can make a contribution to The Conservation Fund’s Go Zero program to plant trees to offset the carbon emissions that result from your flight. You can calculate your carbon footprint online using a their calculator. According to about.com, “in just one year, Delta and its customers have raised enough funds to plant 102,065 trees that over their lifetime are expected to trap 64,000 tons of carbon dioxide–that’s enough to offset the carbon footprint of more than 2,900 Americans for one year.”

On average, a contribution of $5.50 would offset 0.28 short-tons of carbon dioxide, one person’s estimated carbon emissions associated with a 1,320-mile roundtrip flight. A contribution of $11.00 is estimated to offset 0.88 short tons, an individual’s estimated carbon emissions from an average 4,500-mile roundtrip flight.

Where will your money go, you ask? Every penny of your donation goes directly to The Conservation Fund’s Go Zero program to help protect and restore our most vulnerable wildlife habitat. For every $5.50 contributed, the Fund pledges to plant one tree in a protected park or national wildlife refuge.

What does Continental offer?

Continental works with Sustainable Travel International to help invest passengers’ carbon offsets in high-impact projects designed to reduce greenhouse gases, such as reforestation or renewable energy. These projects, which also benefit local communities, are located all over the world. Customers have the option of selecting which kind of program they would like their carbon offsets to benefit.

Other than that, it works similar to Delta. Participation in carbon offsetting is voluntary. The carbon calculator determines the average amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that is emitted for each type of aircraft in Continental Airlines’ fleet and passengers can choose if they want to donate the recommended amount or a different amount.

What about other US airlines?

Many airlines are planning to introduce carbon offsets for passengers in the near future. Northwest’s Carbon Emissions Calculator will estimate the amount of CO2 emissions generated by your flight and provide a suggested voluntary carbon offset contribution to The Nature Conservancy® to remove or sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. Midwest Airlines is also planning a carbon offset program.

American Airlines is certainly not sticking its neck out when it comes to carbon offsets (other than canceling 3,000 flights here and there). They approached it completely differently. From March 24, 2008 through July 31, 2008, their BeGreen program awards up to 10 miles per dollar spent on any Gift of Green products and 5 miles per dollar spent on BeGreen Express Carbon Offset Products including: BeGreen Driver, BeGreen Flyer, or BeGreen Home. I virtually never fly American and this makes me think that I don’t have a reason to change my mind.

Is it worth it?

I want to say, for the extra $5 or so, you almost can’t go wrong. At the same time, it seems silly that something as minor as paying an extra $5 could actually save the planet from scorching and save us from hell.

John Muir: An Earth Day ode

Even though this weekend was filled with Earth Day activities, the actual Earth Day is today. Because yesterday was John Muir’s birthday, it seems fitting to mention those places that travelers are able to appreciate today due to Muir’s dedication to the environment. Besides, he was a traveler with a capital T, the kind Abha referred to in her post on Henry Lee McGinnis, the 80 year-old who has been walking for 16 years.

Born in Dunbar, Scotland, April 21, 1838, Muir quit his job at age 29 after a machine accident almost blinded him. He decided to start walking to learn about nature. The journey took him to Cuba, Florida and California. Remember he was walking. He was so enamored with California that he made it his home. Muir is credited with helping to create Yosemite National Park, as well as, Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon National Parks.

And if that wasn’t enough, Muir helped influence President Theodore Roosevelt to form the National Monuments program and founded the Sierra Club.

Here’s a quote of Muir’s to take along with you this Earth Day.

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer,.Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature’s darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature’s sources never fail.

–from our National Parks, 1901.

Big in Japan: Japan fights global warming with shorter baseball games

Today is April 22, which means that if you have any sort of eco-conscious, you have already picked up on the Earth Day theme here at Gadling.

Truth be told, Japan isn’t always the first country that comes to mind when you think of the modern conservation movement. Sadly, the Japanese have something of a reputation for environmental insensitivity, particularly when it comes to their increasing whaling efforts despite mainstream international protest.

However, you don’t need to spend much time in Japan to realize that the people here are in fact becoming more and more eco-sensitive. Since the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the country has taken an admirable self-assessment of its role in the global warming crisis.

In fact, Japan has since launched one of the world’s most extensive recycling programs, mandated a decreased dependence on air-conditioning during the hot and sticky summer months, and branded the word ‘eco’ as something trendy and fashionable.

So, in honor of this year’s Earth Day celebration, Big in Japan is happy to bring you the latest environmentally friendly news from the Land of the Rising Sun, namely that Japan has started shortening its baseball games in an effort to fight global warming.

How cool is that?

Although few Americans are aware of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), it has produced a number of major Major League Baseball (MLB) players including Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka among others. Known as the Puro Yakyū (プロ野球) in Japanese, the NPB has a long history dating back to 1934 when it was originally founded as the Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club (大日本東京野球倶楽部, Dai-nippon Tōkyō Yakyū Kurabu).

In an effort to make their baseball games more green, the NPB has implemented a plan to shorten its games, thus reducing carbon dioxide emissions at stadiums (as well as fighting boredom by speeding up the pace!). According to an official task force appointed by the NPB, staging baseball games results in huge amount of discharged carbon dioxide due to the movements of players and spectators, as well as the tremendous amount of energy needed to light up stadiums.

On average, game time will be cut by six percent, or about 12 minutes. Teams will be required to spend no more than two minutes and 15 seconds when they change from fielding to batting, and pitchers will be asked to throw within 15 seconds of receiving the ball from the catcher when no runners are on base.

This proposal to cut playing time was set in accordance with Japan’s pledge to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by six per cent from 1990 levels. Sadly however, Japan is struggling to meet its obligations under the Kyoto protocol, though there is hope that this will change in the years to come, especially since the Japanese public has taken on a greater interest in fighting global warming.

From all of us here at Gadling, think big this Earth Day, and remember to respect Mother Earth!

** All images were courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project **


Ways to live green every day, by Continental

Paging through the Continental in-flight magazine last night, I stumbled upon a few “green living” tips.

For example, did you know that:

  • If Americans used one less package of non-recycled paper napkins, it would save one million trees?
  • Ninety percent of the energy used by your washing machine goes to hear the water? Using the cold cycle is much better.
  • Producing and disposing of all the junk mail distributed in the US each year releases as much CO2 as 2,8 million cars?

Continental gives the following easy tips to live green every day:

  1. When you are not traveling, get your morning coffee in a reusable cup. Americans throw away about 40 billion disposable coffee cups each year
  2. Unplug all chargers (cell phone, iPod, etc) when they are not charging their intended device. This reduces carbon emissions by about 100 pounds per year, per charger.
  3. Speed up your shower. Spending just two minutes less in the shower each day could prevent about 400 pounds of CO2 (in the form of energy used to heat and treat the water) from entering the atmosphere each year.
  4. Cut your air travel by half. Just kidding. These are, after all, tips from Continental Airlines.

Airlines are dumping weight to become more fuel efficient

If you’ve ever driven your car with more people in it than usual, or with it packed with luggage during a summer vacation, you’ve probably noticed the difference in how the car feels. You may wonder why the car feel like it’s dragging. Then you remember the extra weight. The extra weight uses up gas. Airplanes aren’t any different. The more weight the plane carries, the more gas it uses.

With fuel prices moving upward, airlines are looking for ways to move the weight their planes carry downward. Here are some items airlines are dumping or have already dumped to become more fuel efficient, according to this article in The Plain Dealer.

  • magazine racks
  • unused ovens
  • wing lights
  • drinking glasses
  • extra wires in walls
  • paper manuals in cockpits

And here are some switches you may notice

  • cookies traded for light baked chips
  • lighter, thinner materials used for seats

Next time you are flying, look around and see what could be dumped or changed for the airplane to be more fuel efficient. You may not choose to dump the passenger sitting next to you. Here is a suggestion I thought of. Pork rinds are lighter than chips.