carbon offsets

13 Stories

Steves to Charge His Tour Company $1M Carbon Tax

Money will help organizations in developing nations, especially with agriculture

(Newser) - "It’s hard to travel and not be aware that climate change is real," Rick Steves says. He's also aware that his tour company contributes to that very issue by ferrying 30,000 tourists to Europe each year. So he's decided to assess his company a...

London Ditches Carbon Offsets for 2012 Olympics

Plan was part of bid to host games

(Newser) - As part of London’s bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, organizers offered a plan to keep the Games green—but they’ve changed their minds. The committee will “no longer pursue formal offsetting procedures,” it said, dropping its pledge to balance carbon emissions from the Games...

Nations Near Deal to Save Tropical Forests

Developing nations would be paid to preserve land

(Newser) - Looks like the UN climate talks under way in Cancun could yield at least one tangible deal—an agreement to start saving the world's tropical forests. The concept is simple enough: Developing nations such as Brazil, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea would be paid to stop bulldozing their forests, reports...

'Counterproductive' Offsets Ditched

Green flying schemes salve consciences, not environment

(Newser) - Carbon offsets are becoming big business, but many emissions experts say green travel is too good to be true. Responsible Travel was one of the first travel firms to offer customers the chance to pay extra money to help offset emissions caused by their air miles. But it has now...

Gore's Climate Crusade Misguided, Wasteful

(Newser) - Global warming is real, but Al Gore’s crusade to curb carbon emissions is misguided and will squander money that could be applied cheaply and efficiently to those problems now, Danish statistician Bjørn Lomborg writes in Esquire. “Here’s the truth: There are better, more cost-effective ways to...

Climate Bill Doesn't Go Far Enough
 Climate Bill Doesn't 
 Go Far Enough 
OPINION
Jun 27, 2009 5:00 PM CDT

Climate Bill Doesn't Go Far Enough

(Newser) - The Waxman-Markey climate change bill isn’t as bad for business as its detractors claim, and “that’s the problem,” Bryan Walsh writes in Time. Because of concessions to coal and farm states that depend on the carbon economy, the bill is watered down and seeks to achieve...

Calif. Branches Into Forests to Fight Climate Change

(Newser) - The California government is preparing to enter into the "forest bank" business in a bid to save woodlands and battle carbon pollution and climate change, reports the Los Angeles Times. The state is expected to roll out a California "cabon market" that may be expanded elsewhere in the...

Fliers Ease Carbon Guilt Via Donations

San Fran airport to offer pollution offsets at new kiosks

(Newser) - Guilty about the carbon footprint of your frequent flights? Have a few bucks to spare and time to kill at San Francisco's airport? The firm 3Degrees is banking on such a combination as it prepares to roll out the nation's first fleet of kiosks offering carbon offsets. No one is...

Germany Pledges Billions for Rainforest Protection

Funds tripled by 2012, add $785M a year after

(Newser) - Germany will spend billions of euros protecting tropical rainforests in an effort to halt global warming. Chancellor Angela Merkel said today at the United Nations' biodiversity conference that Germany will increase its funding for the conservation of rainforests from $330 million to $1.1 billion in the next three years...

Frolic Guilt-Free in Costa Rica
 Frolic Guilt-Free in Costa Rica 
TRAVEL
Apr 15, 2008 6:38 PM CDT

Frolic Guilt-Free in Costa Rica

Flight, hotel promise to offset vacation's carbon footprint

(Newser) - If carbon-footprint guilt is keeping you from taking a vacation, one company has your sun-soaked answer, TreeHugger reports. From the domestic flight to the hotel stay—and even airport transfers in biodiesel vans—NatureVacations' eco-friendly package to Costa Rica promises to offset every ounce of carbon you produce on your...

House's $89K in Carbon Offsets Do Virtually Nothing

Environmentalists call payments 'waste of taxpayer money'

(Newser) - Whatever the good intentions were, the $89,000 the House of Representatives spent on carbon offsets doesn’t seem to have done much, the Washington Post reports. Most of the money went to fund programs that were going on anyway or had already ended. “It demonstrated why offsets are...

Do Carbon 'Offsets' Really Offset Anything?

Inconvenient Truth director says offsets have 'symbolic quality'

(Newser) - Everyone from Al Gore to Coldplay has jumped on the carbon offset bandwagon, but the Los Angeles Times reports that their payments don’t actually make the air any cleaner. Here's how they work: "Offset” companies invest in existing clean energy and win the right to sell “reductions”...

Carbon Offsets Are Often Scams
Carbon Offsets Are Often Scams
Apr 26, 2007 7:56 PM CDT

Carbon Offsets Are Often Scams

Trading on eco-guilt, firms are selling worthless carbon credits

(Newser) - Carbon offsets—the credits gas-guzzling consumers buy to cancel out their carbon production—may do little or nothing more than assuage consciences, a Financial Times investigation concludes. Some companies sell worthless credits; others use them to finance environmental projects they had planned anyway. And consumers have no means to know...

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