Real Carbon Offsetting

Last year, as part of a university course, I was introduced to www.cheatneutral.com - a parody website which aims to highlight the irelevance of the carbon offsetting industry. Their video gives a great overview of the logic behind their parody campaign.


I throughly agree with the premise that paying somebody else to install low energy lightbulbs does very little to reduce the total amount of carbon emissions worldwide, and that the biggest gains in carbon emission reduction can be made through the political process and setting targets which affect industry.

However, I do believe still that there is a need to still consider action at an individual level. If people take a concerted interest in changing their behaviours to have a lower carbon lifestyle then ultimately this can become a transformative green pressure for other entities. The greening of the economy has to be bottom up as well as top down.

Now we come to my dilema. Rio+20, the sustainable development summit which I will be attending this summer on behalf of WAGGGS, will see tens of thousands of people fly to Brazil to talk about issues including the green economy. There is a fair amount of irony in the amount of carbon emitted in the processes of attempting to reduce it.

As an individual I have used a simple online calculator to figure that my return flight will emit around 2 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere (though the damage this figure is questionable in relation the the damage flying does compared to other types of carbon emissions). I do feel guilt about the impact I am having on the environment - but I won't be giving a donation of my money to a carbon neutralising company to offset it.
Instead I plan to take personal action through my food consumption and everyday transportation usage to offset my carbon on an individual basis.

Howstuffworks.com uses data based on a University of Chicago study to suggest how much carbon is offset by a vegetarian (1 tonne) or vegan (2 tonnes) diet. Norfolk County Council - where I currently live - suggest that UK diets vary between 0.2 and 5 tonnes of carbon emissions depending on the amount of meat, dairy, processed and imported by air products you consume.

Due to food intolerances I already cut dairy and egg out of my diet, along with gluten - which means that my diet already has less of an enviromental impact that the UK average and it is trickier to find areas to cut down on. I can however pledge to cut down on food miles and red meat - both of which are major causes of emissions. From now onwards I am going to make a concerted effort to buy the majority of fresh produce that has grown in the UK (or southern Europe in the case of tomatoes etc) and cut down my red meat intake replacing it with fish and vegetarian alternatives wherever possible.

I live approximately 15 minutes by bike or 30 minutes walking from both the university where I study and work and the centre of Norwich. As such travel to either of these destinations by any other method is really unnecessary. I will reserve bus travel for journey's longer than this and car sharing for journeys which couldn't be done on public transport.

I'm not sure if the maths of these reductions add up - indeed there are many researchers who have spent years looking int carbon emissions and still are sure of the precise comparison of different impact on the environment - but it is better than nothing.

These are small changes which may actually save me money as well as carbon emissions, but putting thought into these decisions will have a positive impact on the environment - if we all make a small change it adds up to something really big.
 
Going back to Rio+20, yes it is a phenomenal environmental imapct of getting so many people together in one place for discussions. However if targets and policies cna be established which will ensure the growth of a green economy, then I am certain that the conference will be 'offset' by future sustainable growth.

Maybe soon in the future we can also find a way to do global conferences sustainably too!