The author of today’s post, Sheryl Canter, is an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.
Carbon offsets are a good idea that, unfortunately, without guidelines, can be implemented badly. The basic idea is to reduce and then offset the carbon emissions produced by your lifestyle by funding projects that reduce carbon emissions elsewhere. This works because, from a global warming perspective, it doesn’t matter where the carbon comes from. A reduction anywhere reduces the global total.
But how do you know a given offset is truly reducing carbon emissions?