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Go Carbon Neutral: It's the Word of the Year
How to Offset Your Air Pollution: Earlier in November, the Oxford University Press announced that The New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2006 is carbon neutral.
They define it as: "Being carbon neutral involves calculating your total climate-damaging carbon emissions, reducing them where possible, and then balancing your remaining emissions, often by purchasing a carbon offset: paying to plant new trees or investing in “green” technologies such as solar and wind power."
The dictionary editors felt this word reflects a trend in American society toward green attitudes.
Today I decided to see how I could offset my own carbon emissions. I looked at several Web sites, but chose TerraPass.com, because its carbon calculators were easy to use.
In about 15 minutes I had calculated my carbon footprint for air travel, car travel and home energy use. It cost me $125 to offset these emissions, which totalled 23,500 pounds of carbon dioxide. The largest chunk came from home energy use, even though we already purchase 50 percent wind power. The smallest chunk was flying. I could offset two flights for just $9.99.
My carbon offset purchase will fund renewable energy projects such as wind farms, biodiesel and biomass from dairy-farm methane. TerraPass also funds industrial efficiency projects.
Other sites that do this include NativeEnergy.com and The CarbonNeutral Company.
So check it out. Go carbon neutral this year and give a gift to the planet.
Technorati Tags: Climate Change, Global Warming , Carbon Neutral , Terra PassWritten by downtoearthblog Blog about this entry |
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This is like buying a pet rock. How stupid can people be.
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Okay folks, first off, this is NOT about if you LIKE OR DISLIKE AL GORE. The fact of the matter is we are in trouble, not just us and our children but ALL OF HUMANITY could become EXTINCT. I'm not the type of person that wants to arbitrarily frighten the masses, and do not want to frighten you. However, the fact of the matter is we are in serious trouble. Something must be done to control this problem, not next year, not next month, NOW!!
If our gov isn't going to step up and start offering us some solutions and quickly, we MUST take a stand and start WORKING TOGETHER TO CORRECT this CRISIS. This will become a catastrophe unseen to mankind if something is done now.
We have already lost 40% of Iceland. The polar cap is melting at an alarming rate. Polar bears are dieing because their environment has changed so drastically. There is an area of China that was once fertile farm land, now it is desert & I'm talking sand dunes. "European ski resorts high and dry. A University of Innsbruck study released Jan. 22 suggests that due to an average 3 percent decrease in Alpine ice, GLACIERS IN THE ALPS WILL MELT AWAY BY 2050."
A little more insight to our dilemma.....let alone what will happen to Earth's pop, just a few million will perish in uncontrollable rising sea levels.....in addition, those who survive.....consider our life blood....Fresh Water. Right now, the earth only contains 1.5% of fresh drinkable water on the entire planet. As the sea level continues to rise, fresh water will continue to decrease as the sea settles into our fresh water rivers, streams and lakes.
Food for thought....I work for a marjor Engineering firm and one of our top priorities is to get Desalination Plants up and running....fast.
DON'T BE AFRAID, TAKE ACTION however you can, including spreading the word that we, all of us must be educated on this already out of control crisis.....
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Carbon neutral, what a joke!
Al Gore (Carbon Neutral) is like an alcoholic who pays someone Not to Drink, and continues to drink to excess, and becomes "alcohol neutral."
We should stop wasting time & ink on carbon dioxide pollution, and be concerned with Real Pollution matters (leaking land fills, mercury in coal powered electric plants, etc.).
We need to conserve our resources and not count on the other guy (Government, Industry etc). But we must do it!
How likely is it? Even with sky high gasoline prices, drivers still speed and use drive throughs wasting oceans of gasoline & producing emmissions (NOx & VOCs) in the process.
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It doesn't matter if your a right-winged politician or a Bible-thumper (I am), we live on this earth and should be responsible. That is Biblical (Genesis-Adam was to tend to the Garden of Eden.). Could we just get people to not litter and recycle and waste. People need to be more responsible.
7/6/07 4:37 PM
On one side you have the deniers of global warming and on the other you have the hysterical radical environmentalists who think you can change human habits overnight.
I am caught up in a family dilema. I consider myself to be a rational person (64 years old) who does what he can to recycle, minimize driving, use of electricity, etc. My sister, age 47, is an environmentalist who wastes more enegy that I ever did. She and her husband both drive to work. She has her two children enrolled in every weekend program possible and drives them to what seems to be an endless, everchanging variety of classes from drums to guitar, to violin to dancing to cheerleading to karate to baseball to football (oh, well you get the point).
My wife and I stock up and buy a supply of items which prevents daily trips to the supermarket. My sister, who with her husband makes the big bucks, buys butter by the stick and will make multiple trips to the market on the same day to buy items she forgot. Her kids have hundreds of DVDs, games and toys which they never play with and the house looks like a landfill. By the way, they claim they are "too busy" to recycle cans and paper.
She makes 3 to 4 nature trips a year to see animals in places like Montana and, Canada in addition to long weekend vacations to Florida.
My point is this: caring for the environment is not enough. There is a lot of hypocrisy out there on the part of people, like my sister, who claim they care but who are hugh users of energy. We all have to pitch in and do our small part by readjusting our lives so we use less energy, water and resources. I hope there are not too many "environmentalists" like my sister out there?