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| Eureka! Offset your emissions. |
The other day I received an email from Rod “CEO” Cuthbert about an article he came across in the UK’s Guardian Unlimited. When I went to the website I found that the second article on the page (between Iran’s suspension of a sailor’s release plans and the new MC Rove) was about the UK’s carbon emissions. The article talked about the rise in carbon emissions in the UK and that the 1.25% increase was “worrying and that the figures underlined the importance of efforts to tackle climate change both from government and wider society”.
Rod’s point was simple: Carbon emissions are headline news. This is typical now, it’s a topic that’s rarely off the front pages of the major dailies.
Climate change, or global warming, is the changing of our global climate due to the build up of carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Is it happening? Yes. For example:
- 2005 was the hottest year on record.
- Greenland’s glaciers are melting 2.5 times faster than a decade ago. If they melt entirely the world’s oceans will rise 20 feet.
- Hurricanes are becoming more severe due to higher water temperatures.
- Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at a 650,000-year high.
Carbon offsets are the process of reducing a ton of carbon dioxide emissions in another location for the emissions caused in the home, office, commute, travel or other activities that use energy and cause emissions. Carbon offsets enable anyone to reduce their climate footprint by supporting projects, typically energy efficiency, renewable energy, sequestration, biomass, etc. that reduce carbon dioxide emissions to offset one’s own climate footprint. Carbon dioxide emissions are caused by the burning of fossil fuels: oil, coal and natural gas. Obviously, your car uses gasoline.
But your house and office as well as the factory that produces your clothes or restaurants, movie theaters and other places we use every day use electricity and energy that generally comes from power plants that use fossil fuels. More than 50% of America’s electricity is derived from coal and virtually all our transportation needs are fueled by oil. The typical American is responsible for 10 tons of CO2 emissions annually through their direct energy use of home, cars and air travel, and about 23 tons of CO2 including their purchases, activities and the other services we all share throughout the economy.
I love to travel and I hope you love to travel. BUT traveling by plane, helicopter, bus, car, van, tuk tuk, motorbike, truck, scooter, boat, barge, ferry, ship, atv, dune buggy, and so on and so forth obviously emits carbon dioxide into the air. Viator offers tours and activities in over 450 destination worldwide. While not all our activities require a motorized vehicle we are, along with our suppliers, contributing our fair share of CO2 into the atmosphere.
This is why Viator has decided to partner with Carbonfund.org. Carbonfund.org is a nonprofit organization that educates the public about the dangers of climate change and makes it easy and affordable for individuals, businesses and organizations to reduce their climate impact. They are reducing the threat of climate change by promoting low-cost carbon reductions and supporting renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects that reduce and offset carbon dioxide emissions.
Working with Carbonfund.org, Viator has developed a roadmap to offset its company carbon emissions. We aim to become carbon neutral by working to offset all corporate travel, office energy usage and shipping costs. We encourage our entire staff to offset their personal energy usage by reducing and offsetting. We also want to encourage fellow travelers to offset their carbon footprint in 2007. Whether you want to focus on business or personal travel or other energy usage contributions made through this partnership will support Carbonfund.org’s combination of renewable energy, reforestation, and energy efficiency projects.
Interested in calculating the emissions your next trip will generate? Visit Carbonfund today to calculate and have the opportunity to contribute to do your part for the earth.
–Liz P
Learn more about Earth Day, and read our other blog posts about sustainable living and ‘going green‘.
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