Arcoarena

I went to the Eden Project whilst on holiday in Cornwall and it raised the whole Carbon Credit thing to the fore-front of my mind (again). I’d previously seen this advertised on the Newcastle metro. The reason I was on the metro was I was flying home (yes the nearest airport is Newcastle despite being a 2 hour train journey from my home). Flying home and hence being (partially) responsibly for all that fuel being burnt (sort of) added to my guilt.

Anyway. The idea is that you buy either carbon neutral fuels (wood because it only releases the amount of CO2 that is absorbed when it was alive) or the other more usual way is you pay to have trees planted to offset the amouth of CO2 you produce from your car, house etc.

My concern about this point of view is that (if you believe that we need to reduce the amount of CO2 and have a seat on the eco-bandwagon) it seems like an excuse to rid yourself of the guilt without any effort. The message seems to be ‘flying is ok because, even though there are more environmentally friendly ways of travelling, you bought some trees so that’s fine’. Surely people should be looking at how they live their lives. Anyone actually bothered would surely not fly wouldn’t they?

The reason I bring this up is because I saw a different way of approaching it. Electricity companies often offer Green Electricity, those either offset as above or (have an equivalent amount) produced from renewable sources. Ebico (found via Hippy Shopper) takes a different approach. They buy Carbon credits from other companies forcing other manufacturers to produce less. This way of doing things may actually result in less CO2 being produced in the first place.

After all Reduce is first in the oft-quoted 3 R’s of greeness (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

I visited Pledgebank the other day. It is a good idea, sort of. I don’t like the idea that “I’ll only do this if other do” but it’s seems a good way to encourage others to do something you really believe in.

Many of the pledges were things I already do. I recently bought energy-saving lightbulbs so only one bulb in our flat is of the convensional kind (and that only used for all of 1 minute a week; it’s in a cupboard). I also donate blood and I’m going to a session on the 27th. I buy fairtrade tea (although Adam might have a few things to say on this) and more environmentally friendly cleaning products. I also recycle as much as possible. I also give to both Water Aid and Oxfam

Apologies for the above as it makes me sound like a holier-than-thou pillock. But my point is that I created a new one.

So what’s the point of this? Well anyone fancy registering as a bone marrow donor?.