Categories: random
Tags: garden, environment, compost, random
Date: 19 April 2007 15:28:27
Neil has just pointed out that there seems to be an outbreak of serious-itis on the wiblogs this week. As my last two entries, though serious for me, aren't the most deep-and-meaningful things I've ever written, I thought I'd write a wee bit about something I've been meaning to for a while, and realistically this is my last chance to do so (I really am going to pack up the computer later today, honest!).
So, carbon offsetting. It's been in the news a fair bit lately, and on the surface seems like a good idea, planting trees (often, although other green measures are also supported depending on which company you go with) to "offset" the CO2 emitted as the result of lifestyle choices (such as flying). There has been some debate though as to the effectiveness of this - there's no way of measuring accurately how many trees need planting (or whatever) in order to offset fossil fuel use, with different companies varying wildly as to how much they say you should pay in order to offset the same journey leading to accusations of profiteering. Plus there's debate about how effective it is as if a tree is planted it will take many years for it to reach its full carbon-absorbing potential, whilst the carbon that's already been emitted (and which you're paying to offset) is already doing its damage. My own thoughts are that whilst it's far from perfect, I do worry about commercial organisations who seem to be playing on yet another aspect of people's consciences in order to gain profit, and until everyone does it it's surely only going to be a drop in the ocean anyway, still planting trees/other green stuff is surely better than planting no trees, even on the individual level, so recognising that it's an imperfect system I'm still inclined to do something rather than nothing. I do wonder though whether it's as much about trying to assuage my middle-class tree-hugging guilt as it is about trying to be effective.
I've been thinking about this a lot in the last year because, as most of you know, I'm currently in a long-distance relationship which has involved both of us taking a lot of domestic flights in order to see each other regularly. And, to be honest, even though I hate the thought of my carbon footprint at the moment, I'm also really grateful for cheap domestic flights as without them it would have been much more difficult to sustain the relationship. HD is totally worth the hassle and effort of all the travelling, and I don't begrudge any of it, but I am glad that once we're married that particular hassle will be over as we'll be at the same end of the country! Which also means that I'll feel infinitely less guilty and find it much easier to tick all the boxes about pledging to take fewer flights!
I do want to do my bit to minimise the damage though while we're still in the long-distance side of things, so I was really pleased to find a Scottish charity which seems to be treating the issue sensibly. It is doing the whole tree-planting thing, and when I first discovered them they provided calculators for working out your carbon footprint and how to offset it and all that, but looking at it again just now they seem to have taken a more nuanced (and realistic) approach, including not being so simplistic as to just say x hours of flying = y number of trees = £z. So I feel that by contributing to them I will be doing more than just giving money to a company which is jumping on a bandwagon. Here's a link: Trees for Life. In the meantime, I can also think about finding other ways of reducing emissions - later this year I'll be buying a new boiler, I could change to a greener energy supplier, try to recycle more, carry on composting*, the usual stuff. I know I'm only a drop in the ocean. But one drop less is still less than one drop more. I can't change the world single-handed, but it doesn't mean that I can't contribute to changing the world.
* Talking of which - I took my compost to the garden (see blog entries passim) this morning and got chatting to the gardener, I told him about the letter-writing and he said that quite a few people had been doing that and it seems to be having an effect. I think the team he works for comes under one of the local housing associations, and he said that the director had mentioned to him recently how concerned people seem to be and how much they seem to care about the garden like he hadn't realised before how much people valued and needed these areas of green space which are well cared-for and looked after and have value in their own right. So hopefully my letters, along with the others, will have an impact even if I felt I was standing up for a principle but wasn't really expecting to achieve much with them.