Traveling & Climate Change
I have the privilege of having the ability to travel. I have the time and money needed to take extended trips. Tomorrow I leave my home in the country and head to New York City. I am flying from Seatac to JFK. I know that the carbon footprint of plane travel is quiet heavy 1.08 metric tons for my trip to be exact.
There are carbon offset programs that allow you to buy shares in different schemes, the one that appeals to me is tree planting. Knowing which scheme to invest in will require much of home work.
Jet Blue the airlines I will be traveling on uses Carbon Fund as an carbon offset fund provider. They plant 10 trees for $10. So the offset for my trip or 1.08 tons, in a tree planting scheme is less than $10.
- Miles: 4841.00
- Tonnes CO2: 0.82
- Total Cost: $8.18
I take global warming and climate change seriously, I live near a beach on an island. The capitalist system under which we all live is short term profit driven, little concern is given to climate change. The culture, media and governments try to shame the individual to be responsible for their waste and energy usage, making it seem like it is up to each individual to solve the global problem. The truth is on an individual level it is hard to make a big impact. Of course we each need to be responsible but the way our society and business culture operates the cards are stack against the individual effecting much change. Big change has to take place on the systemic level. We need to change tax laws and we need to enforce strict environmental regulations. Once short term profit is taken out of the equation we will start to see more dramatic change.