Donating to Offset a Carbon Footprint
Our family decided to reduce our carbon footprint. This led to several improvements.
AT HOME
We installed the first solar panels in the neighborhood (now there are many) and have recently installed more. We changed our cooking range and our clothes dryer from gas to electric. We replaced our furnace with a more efficient one. We installed double-pane glass in all our windows and added fans and insulation to the attic. We now have a plug-in hybrid car and a fully electric one. We buy from an electricity company that gets its electricity from renewable sources. Our direct fossil fuel usage—and thus CO2 emissions—has decreased significantly.
TRAVEL
We live 5,500 miles from my family in Denmark. We are not eager to fly there in terms of CO2 generation. However, sometimes it is necessary to go, so this summer we combined three necessary trips into one long one.
In spite of using the most fuel-efficient airline available and lots of public transportation, the trip generated more than nine metric tons (9,000 kg) of CO2. Very embarrassing! What could we do to make up for [offset] that? It turned out [as it happened] there were many ways to do it.
WHERE TO DONATE?
I searched the Internet and found a charity that uses donations to plant trees. Another improves cookstoves in Kenya. Another supports the extraction of gas from landfills. Such charities can sometimes tell you how much CO2 a certain activity (for example, flying or driving a car) generates and how much to donate to offset that amount.
How could I ensure that our hard-earned donation would end up in the right pockets and have the most impact? I wanted an organization that works to eliminate the root causes—greed and racism—of our current inability to react fast enough to climate change. I wanted one that was honest about its goals and that used donations to support climate activists. What organization was the best one to support with my carbon offset funds? The answer was easy: it was RC.
My next step was to decide on a contribution. I made use of online calculators and decided to donate $200.
Cypress, California, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of wide world change
(Present Time 198, January 2020)