Word: offsets
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...mend their ways. It's called cap and trade, and it is the mechanism behind the so-called carbon markets spawned by the Kyoto Protocol. Firms in developed countries that pump out more CO2 than they are allowed under limits imposed by Kyoto are required by the protocol to offset that pollution by buying credits on the carbon market. Those that cut CO2 emissions below their allowance or help polluters in developing nations clean up their act get to sell the credits--as do groups that cut greenhouse gases by, among other things, planting trees...
Meanwhile, the opportunities to offset emissions are growing. Conservation International, for instance, helped Mitsubishi and Pearl Jam funnel their offsetting funds into rain-forest protection in Madagascar. And Coldplay did more than enough to offset its last album, X&Y, by protecting forests in Mexico and Ecuador. Internet ventures with names like TerraPass, myclimate and Drive Neutral enable commuters and air travelers to calculate their emissions and neutralize the damage. Some even aim to turn a profit...
...consumer offsets work? Take the nonprofit Carbonfund.org It sells absolution for personal and commercial emissions at a cut rate of $5.50 per ton of CO2. (A full year of carbon neutralization typically costs $99.) Carbonfund allows buyers to choose where their money winds up--in alternative energy, forest conservation or energy efficiency. Co-founder Eric Carlson says Carbonfund has offset about 40,000 tons of CO2 so far. That's not much. But its ultimate aim, he says, is to channel what support it gets into driving down the cost of clean energy--and, along the way, increase awareness...
...internal dialogue all the time; it?s practically unavoidable in our multi-ethnic, politically correct society, where stereotypes and reality collide more often than people would like to think, or admit. While I want to believe that my motivation is benevolent, I recognize the irony of trying to offset racial profiling by engaging in what amounts to just another form...
...Meanwhile, HSBC has already set its sights even higher. "There's nothing to stop us being carbon negative," says Sullivan, comparing HSBC's CO2 emissions to a monthly paycheck and offset credits to monthly expenses. "We could make purchases from time to time that will either take us back down to zero, or will take us negative for a bit and then we would come up again," he says. "Sometimes you're in credit, and sometimes you're in deficit." Now that's a bank talking...