Deciding whether to pay off your holiday air travel.
from SlateLast month my husband and I flew to Detroit to spend Thanksgiving with his family, and this week we're flying to Los Angeles to have Christmas with mine. Should we bother with carbon-offset programs to make up for all that time in the air, or are those things just a racket?
In principle, carbon offsets—which pay for projects that reduce or sequester greenhouse-gas emissions—seem like a pretty appealing idea. Sure, they may seem like papal indulgences, allowing the world's wealthy to imagine they can do business as usual without causing environmental harm. But given that everyone will be responsible for some carbon, offsets can serve to undo some of the inevitable damage caused by daily life. And by fixing a monetary value on emissions, they help to concretize the hidden costs of flying, eating meat, or whatever else you're up to.
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