Carbon Offsetting 101
Some human activities add a substantial amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (also known as CO2) to the Earth’s atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Many people worry about this, but don’t wish to give up their CO2 producing activities, such as flying. So they look for some way to cancel the effect of the carbon dioxide they add to the atmosphere. One way of doing this is by ‘carbon offsetting’.
Carbon offsetting is done by estimating the weight of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere as a result of a certain activity, and then purchasing credits toward a compensating activity, such as planting trees, that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Financially supporting a suitable CO2-removing activity can make the original carbon dioxide-producing activity ‘carbon neutral’. The carbon dioxide emitted during the desired activity is balanced by a comparable activity removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so that the total of the carbon dioxide emitted by the original activity plus the offsetting CO2 removal activity is roughly zero.
An example of this would be a one-way flight from Toronto to Paris, a distance of 5,997 km. Aircraft are large emitters of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, not only because they have enormous engines which only run on fossil fuels, but largely because they move so rapidly that one has the opportunity to travel across the globe in the span of a day. (In fact, civilian aircraft use slightly less fuel per passenger per km than cars, but a person can travel a far larger distance in a single flight than in most car trips.)
During a 7 hour flight, about 1,750kg of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere per passenger. Projects which could absorb this mass of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere include planting trees, financially supporting the generation of electricity from solar power, or investing in technologies such as wind-powered ships.
All of these require funds to operate and to grow. Several companies exist, dubbed ‘offset providers’, which allow you to purchase credits (used to operate or invest in carbon dioxide removal activities) equivalent to your flight’s emissions. Using one such provider, less.ca, you would pay $37 to offset a one-way flight to Paris. You can also contribute directly to projects (rather than working with a broker) that are creating their own carbon credits - our favourite is the New Brunswick-based Community Forests International.
The same opportunity to carbon offset applies to anything manufactured, transported, heated up, and powered. You could offset a tank of gas, a cup of tea, or a diamond ring.
Disposable packaging can be made effectively carbon neutral by estimating the CO2 emitted in the production of its raw materials, manufacture of the packaging itself, transportation to its final destination, and its eventual decomposition — and then purchasing carbon offsets to balance the total emitted carbon dioxide.
References:
https://www.carbonindependent.org/22.html
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2015/09/evolving-climate-math-of-flying-vs-driving/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/04/planting-billions-trees-best-tackle-climate-crisis-scientists-canopy-emissions