When most people think of carbon offsetting, they think of trees. Planting them, maintaining them, preventing them from being burnt. And why not? Trees are cheap, easy and beautiful. But carbon offsets are much more than that. They include building better stoves, wind turbines, waste management, biofuel, transportation and much more. If you want even more specifics, you came to the right place, because in this article, I’ll tell you what carbon offsets really are.

In my previous post, I established that carbon offsets are overall a great idea. They have a bad reputation that stems from the late 2000’s, but the industry has improved much since then. On a short term basis, they are underutilized as a tool to fight the climate crisis. It empowers individuals to convert emissions heavy activities like flights, that are occasionally inevitable, into carbon neutral actions through the power of funding. Going above and beyond, people can even spend a little extra in order to go carbon negative. With this said, however, the carbon offsetting industry still faces some issues, most of them regarding trust. …

Carbon offsets, sometimes called climate compensation, are a great idea, and an important tool in combating the climate crisis. In short, carbon offsets mean paying someone else to reduce greenhouse gas emissions somewhere in relation to an amount that you decide. Often this would mean compensating for the emissions attributed to your airplane trip. As an example, the offset seller could build wind turbines to replace the local coal power plants, or perhaps plant trees to absorb carbon dioxide from the air. It could also be as simple as providing a source of clean water to a village, which would mean that they no longer had to boil the water before drinking it. But carbon offsets often get a bad rap. They can be confusing and some even ask: ”are carbon offsets even real?”. …