Saturday, April 19, 2008

My first carbon-neutral flight!


Anyone with a pulse has probably heard about how disastrous air travel is for the environment. This graph demonstrates that flights like the one I'll be taking this July boast, on average, the highest emissions per passenger of any form of transportation known to man. What's a girl to do? Skip the trip? Spend the summer in a yurt, living off the grid?

Many feminist philosophers and activists include recommendations for actions to be taken in the "pre-feminist" present -- that is, our gender-skewed society -- that are different than the ideal behavior that would occur in the perfectly gender-neutral future. I've chosen to look at this challenge in much the same way. Until travel becomes more eco-friendly, or the harm to the environment outweighs the cultural and educational benefits of a program like BIOCEP, it doesn't make sense to forgo such an opportunity. However, lucky for me, there is means of assuaging my eco-conscience: carbon offsets!

According to this and this website, my round-trip flight to Bangkok will produce about 7.0 tons of CO2 gas -- per passenger. Ouch. However, with the help of the friendly people at NativeEnergy, I'm buying enough carbon credits to offset this rather large carbon emission. My credits will go toward something called "remooable energy," which collects methane gas from family-owned cattle farms (snicker snicker), and toward a program which helps small farmers purchase wind turbines to generate their own renewable energy. These offsets are certified and third-party verified, and go directly from an American company to American farmers, so will hopefully avoid some of the problems that international CO2 offset companies face, especially ones based on planting trees.

There are clearly many problems with carbon offset schemes right now -- the market sprang up so quickly that appropriate regulations are only just being put in place, and many of the earliest efforts appear to have mangled even well-intentioned operations on the ground. If you are thinking of purchasing your own carbon offsets -- whether for a big trip, or just for daily living -- do your research before you buy. The best programs are not those which pay poor farmers in third-world countries to plant trees, altruistic though this might seem, because research has shown that in practice such mechanisms are fraught with problems. (Farmers uninformed and misled, trees diseased or rotted, carbon reduction rendered ineffective, etc. -- listen to this podcast with Becky Milligan of the BBC's OnePlanet for information about one scheme in Tamil Nadu, South India) Your best bet is to look for credits from a reputable company offering ways to donate to established, verified alternative energy programs. In particular, look for offsets that are VER+ certified, meet the UNFCCC Clean Development or Voluntary Carbon Standards, and are in conformity with the Environmental Resources Trust protocol.

Happy flying!

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