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planeta
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Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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 Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2005 6:05 am Post subject: Carbon Emission Offsetting |
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Does Carbon Emission Offsetting work?
Last edited by planeta on Sun May 15, 2005 5:53 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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planeta
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Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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twburford
Traveler
Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 13
Location: Cambridge UK/Anchorage AK
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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| Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 5:33 am Post subject: Five Live Report - Trading Trees |
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Recommended listening
Five Live Report - Trading Trees (45 min)
Sun 29 Oct - 11:10
Is the carbon offsetting industry helping the environment?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/fivelive/aod.shtml?fivelive/flreport_trading_trees
Everyone from holidaymakers, to big corporations and celebrities like Coldplay are paying money for new trees to be planted to make up for the pollution they are causing. Carbon offsetting as its known has become big business in the UK with even the government preparing to pay millions of pounds of taxpayers money to these schemes. Reporter Matthew Chapman investigates allegations that the offsetting industry is doing little to help the environment while allowing some polluting companies to clean up their image. |
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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| Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 6:53 pm Post subject: Administrative note |
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FYI - The Carbon Emissions Offsetting topic is now archived within the Climate Forum branch on the Planeta Forum
http://forum.planeta.com/viewforum.php?f=91 |
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Fernando
Traveler
Joined: 11 Jul 2003
Posts: 45
Location: Ciudad de Mexico
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| Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:58 pm Post subject: Flying the cleanly skies? |
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From an article published february 12, 2007 at The Christian Science Monitor:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0212/p13s02-litr.html?s=wklytrvl
"Just a few decades from now, people may look back at the early 21st century with both fondness and horror as the Era of the Cheap Airline Flight. They may wax nostalgic for the days when visiting distant relatives and taking vacations in exotic locales were easily affordable for the masses. But they also may be alarmed at how long it took the world to realize the havoc that unfettered air travel was wreaking on the world's climate.
At least one travel industry official predicts that in 30 years, long-distance flying will be undertaken only by the wealthy as ticket prices rise dramatically – and the number of flights shrinks proportionately – to curb the emissions of greenhouse gases created by air travel. "
Jet engines burn kerosene, which gives off carbon dioxide (CO2), a leading cause of global warming. Airline flights today make up less than 3 percent of man-made CO2 emissions, though they also spew nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, soot, and water vapor that may double their total warming effect on the climate. "
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"The effect of a drastic reduction of airline flights on the world economy would be significant. Aviation drives about 9 percent of world GDP, Meenan says.
"The countries that would be hit hardest would be developing countries, because they're more dependent on tourism," says Justin Francis, CEO of responsibletravel.com, an online travel agency specializing in ecotourism based in Brighton, England. In half of the developing countries, tourism is one of the top three industries, he says.
"My view is that we must fly less," Mr. Francis says, adding that the ecoconscious might decide to take only one big vacation flight each year and take shorter nonflying vacations the rest of the year. Hopping around Europe every few weeks on the low-cost airlines that have sprung up in recent years would have to end, he says. "
Complete article:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0212/p13s02-litr.html?s=wklytrvl |
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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| Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:01 pm Post subject: Cheat Neutral |
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Recommended reading ... fairly strong satire!
Cheat Neutral
http://www.cheatneutral.com
Kudos to John Shores for pointing out this website in his reflections
http://forum.planeta.com/viewtopic.php?t=645
John writes: | Quote: | | Intrepid Reader: As the debate heats up over the merits of carbon offsets, I thought we could use a little carbon-neutral humor. On one level it's a clever spoof of carbon offsets, but in this case you can offset cheating with non-cheating pledges. Somehow that seems to require non-Euclidean mathematics... |
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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| Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 2:00 pm Post subject: Carbon offsetting: who to trust? |
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Carbon offsetting: who to trust? - Richard Hammond/Times Online
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/article1425710.ece
| Quote: | | Carbon offsetting companies came in for a drubbing in January when the government announced that only four of the UK’s 59 schemes met its standards. The Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is working on a ‘quality mark’ that it hopes in the future will separate out the good guys from the greenwash, but while many offsetting schemes are working to bring themselves into line with Defra’s code of practice, the standard won’t be available until the autumn. Here I take a look at some of the UK’s leading offsetting schemes to see how they compare. |
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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| Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 2:02 pm Post subject: Can you be traveling green? |
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Can you be traveling green by buying offsets? - Barbara De Lollis/USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2007-03-02-offsets-usat_x.htm
| Quote: | | Critics in the environmental movement also fear that selling offsets may divert public attention from what they view as a more effective remedy: stricter laws. "On an issue like climate change, where real regulation and government action are probably necessary, you don't want offsets to distract from the importance of that task," says Billy Pizer, an economist with Resources for the Future, an environmental think tank. |
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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| Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:29 pm Post subject: NTY |
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Carbon-Neutral Is Hip, but Is It Green? - New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/weekinreview/29revkin.html
| Quote: | As long as the use of fossil fuels keeps climbing — which is happening relentlessly around the world — the emission of greenhouse gases will keep rising. The average American, by several estimates, generates more than 20 tons of carbon dioxide or related gases a year; the average resident of the planet about 4.5 tons.
At this rate, environmentalists say, buying someone else’s squelched emissions is all but insignificant.
"The worst of the carbon-offset programs resemble the Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences back before the Reformation," said Denis Hayes, the president of the Bullitt Foundation, an environmental grant-making group. "Instead of reducing their carbon footprints, people take private jets and stretch limos, and then think they can buy an indulgence to forgive their sins. This whole game is badly in need of a modern Martin Luther." |
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:30 pm Post subject: Carbon Chaos |
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Environment groups call for carbon offset regulation - The World Today
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s1932288.htm
| Quote: | | Planting trees to offset greenhouse gas emissions is becoming increasingly popular in Australia and the carbon-offset industry is burgeoning. But an environment group says companies that offer to plant trees for consumers to help them offset their carbon footprint need to be regulated. |
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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| Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:47 am Post subject: carboNZero |
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carboNZero
http://www.conference.co.nz/index.cfm/31whc/general_information/carbonzero/index.html
| Quote: | The 2007 World Heritage Committee meeting will be carbon neutral. Through the Landcare Research carboNZero programme, we aim to minimise the environmental impact of the 31st session of the World Heritage Committee.
What is the carboNZero programme?
The carboNZero programme is a certification programme for minimising the effects of climate change. It encourages and supports individuals and organisations to take action to reduce their impacts on climate change by providing them with tools to measure, manage and mitigate their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Why carboNZero?
Climate change is a key issue for the World Heritage Committee and for the New Zealand Government. By assessing the meeting’s environmental impact this year, we can look at how we can reduce or mitigate this impact, thus helping to address the climate change issue. According to Landcare Research, a leading New Zealand environmental research organisation, the world’s climate is changing.
‘Changes include increasing temperatures, rising sea levels and a greater incidence of extreme weather, such as storms, heat waves, droughts, and floods. Much of this change is as a result of human activities that increase the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Scientists expect that the world will continue to warm over the next 100 years.’
Carbon credits (or 'offsets') are generated from projects that reduce or prevent the accumulation of gases that contribute to global warming in the atmosphere. The most common projects involve:
- planting trees
- reforestation (or preventing deforestation)
- use of renewable energy
- energy conservation/efficiency.
carboNZero certification of the 31st session of the World Heritage Committee
Through the Landcare Research carboNZero programme, we will be able to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are directly associated with the meeting in Christchurch, and to mitigate the emissions associated with delegates' travel and accommodation. We will do this by investing in the natural regeneration of native forest or with carbon credits from New Zealand government-approved Projects to Reduce Emissions, such as the generation of electricity from landfill gas or by wind farms. These credits are verified by third-party auditors through schemes such as the WWF Gold Standard or ISO 14064-2 (the international standard for quantification, monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emission reductions or removal enhancements). Delegates will have the opportunity to make a donation to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions.
In becoming carbon neutral, the 31st session of the World Heritage Committee will join other high-profile carbon-neutral events, including the 2002 Winter Olympics, the 2006 soccer World Cup, and TRENZ 2007 the New Zealand Tourism Industry Conference.
For further information, see the carboNZero programme FAQs
http://www.carbonzero.co.nz/faq.asp |
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planeta
Site Admin
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 6743
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 3:50 pm Post subject: Cheat Neutral Update |
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More from the creators of Cheat Neutral
http://www.cheatneutral.com
Children of the revolution - Western Mail
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/features/tm_headline=children-of-the-revolution&method=full&objectid=19335638&siteid=50082-name_page.html
Jun 23 2007
They’re young, principled and Welsh. Rachael James finds a new breed of protestors making waves in Wales
| Quote: | The environment is at the heart of Christian and Alex’s protest. Their website, Cheatneutral.com, was devised as a way of highlighting what they see as the pointlessness of carbon-offsetting, the latest trend in environmental damage limitation.
“We were in the pub talking about carbon-offsetting and we wondered if there were other things in our life which we could offset,” says Alex, 25.
“In the end, we hit on the idea that you could neutralise cheating on your partner by paying someone else to remain faithful.
“It started basically as a joke, but the issue behind it is something which we take very seriously.”
Carbon-offsetting was initially introduced as a way of combating carbon emissions and works by giving consumers the opportunity to pay offset companies to invest in environmentally friendly projects, usually in less developed countries.
For example, when you book a flight to New York, you could pay an offset company to plant a few hundred trees to “neutralise” the carbon which will be generated by your transatlantic flight.
Christian, 24, and Alex think this is the wrong way to tackle the problem and decided that a spoof website would make the point that it would be better for us all to change our habits and reduce emissions in the first place, rather than carrying on behaving in the same way and “off loading” our bad habits onto someone else. |
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