Offset Your Holiday

Dec 8 2011, 2:43 PM ET Comment

Going home for the holidays can either be joyous scene out of Norman Rockwell, or a stressful one from Dante. The family can either hug and kiss or end up mulling over uncomfortable questions. Either way, however, heading home often involves a plane flight.

If you can avoid flying, do so--driving is almost always the better choice (flying from Asia to the United States, for example, can burn enough carbon to equal a year's worth of driving). But we often have no choice in the matter--you can't drive from Asia to Ohio.

If you're feeling guilty about all of that pollution you're emitting, many airlines offer a way for you to assuage your guilt, through their carbon offset programs (like this one). all you have to do; sign up, pay a little bit extra, and like magic, your pollution has been wiped away.

But how? And is it really wiped away?

The answer is complicated. We live in a push-button, digital world, and we expect straightforward, uncomplicated answers--even when they don't exist. First, what an offset is: according to the World Resources Institute, "A greenhouse gas (GHG) or 'carbon' offset is a unit of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) that is reduced, avoided, or sequestered to compensate for emissions occurring elsewhere." Basically, you pollute, and then pay for someone, somewhere to plant a tree or do something similar, that compensates for your damage. It costs less than checking a bag: about $10.00 or so for an average trip. 

The problem comes in how you measure your damage. And how you measure the cure. The Guardian says it does little to no good at all. The first problem: offsetting schemes are unregulated; they can be subject to fraud and a great deal of film-flam. The other problem is measurement: figuring out how much damage you're doing, and how much of a cure you're providing. The Guardian says, "Measuring emissions from aircraft is especially fraught with disagreement .  . . When Tufts University . . . analyzed offsetting websites, it found emissions for flights between Boston and Frankfurt being calculated at anything between 1.43 tons and 4.14 tons."

What to do? You can buy Gold Standard carbon credits--a standard set-up by various NGOs such as GreenPeace--they best carbon standard we have right now. Many sites approved by the Gold Standard have offset calculators. One Gold Standard site, E+Co says $25 offsets as much as 2.57 tons of carbon dioxide.

So it really does work: you can really offset the damage you've done by flying. But you have to be mindful about where you're spending your money, though.