Green Your World With Carbon Offsets

CARBON OFFSETS FOR THE REST OF US!

"Carbon offsets" - everyone is talking about them, from Al Gore's documentary, to the White House, even at the latest Oscars. We are supposed to estimate "footprints" - without having anything to do with our actual feet - by reducing our emission of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, and somehow, some way, save the planet. Oh yeah...
and there's the little matter of fitting this into our busy lives. Help!

Not to fear, the seemingly over -
whelming topic can coexist with our hectic lives rather easily. Carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases such as methane, ozone and nitrous oxide, are naturally occurring gases that are part of our atmosphere. Sometimes our activity, such as our energy use, adds to these gases and therein is the potential problem. More than 80% of U.S. green -
house gas emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

That footprint? Like the wet shadow your foot leaves behind after running through the sprinkler, it's just an outline. In this case it's an outline of our estimated greenhouse gas-generating activities and their environmental impact. Apparently there are plenty o' those: using our heating and cooling systems, driving to and from work, and certainly traveling on those things called airplanes.

Scientists, pundits and politicians can (and no doubt will) argue for many years to come about exactly how much carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas is too much. The rest of us? We can take action to
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become "carbon neutral" by changing some of our activities or investing in a project whose goalis eliminating greenhouse gases.

Carbon offsets are nothing more than donations back into the bio-system, and rather inexpensiveones at that! The payoff for you is that you get to fund and fuel theeconomic engine of growth and innovation. And whether or not globalwarming is manmade, in taking action we can rest assured we won't becontributing to the problem.

So here they are, three easy steps to do our part to green the world:

1) Go to one of the many websites offering information on carbon offsets:
www.carboncounter.org, www.carbonfund.org, or www.driveneutral.org.

2) Read their FAQ which will very painlessly explain the finer details of carbon offsets in one quick reading.

3)Use the footprint calculator to estimate your carbon footprint. You canthen decide what you want to do to make changes in your lifestyle withsuggestions from the websites, purchase offsets to balance your annualfootprint, or both!

One, Two, Three, you are now on your way to being carbon neutral and have done yourpart to green the world. The 6 billion earthlings who share this globewith you thank you very much.

Contributed by Denise L. Pouchet

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Simple things you can do today...

> Use Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
Replace 3 frequently used light bulbs and save 300 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $60 per year. MORE >>

> Inflate Your Tires
By keeping them properly inflated, you can save 250 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $840 per year.

> Change Your A/C Filter
Clean or replace dirty filters and save 350 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $150 per year.

> Go To stopglobalwarming.org
for these and dozens of other easy ways to reduce your carbon impact and save some green.

Resources

> Calculate your carbon footprint and find easy ways to purchase carbon offsets at:
www.carboncounter.org,
www.carbonfund.org,
www.driveneutral.org.

> The Sustainable Group can help you participate in innovative, market-based solutions. These strategists help individuals and small to mid-size businesses reduce their carbon impact, offset their carbon footprint, and invest in a greener future.

> If you're really into learning more about the financial market opportunities, go to The Chicago Climate Exchange - the world's only global system for emissions trading based on all six green -
house gases. You can dig deeper into emission reducing projects by participating members, and learn more about this exciting new market as it develops.