Hi Huw and thanks for sharing your approach towards offsetting.
I am wondering if these 35$ are giving us the impression that being the reason for co2 emissions is ok, as it is so cheap to offset. Shouldn’t we, as people believing in EA, still use higher pricec per ton Co2 to be reminded, that the climate cost per ton are higher currently, and even if we chose to take an effective organisation to offset, it doesn’t mean that we can emmit Co2 without caring?
The point is, emmiting (and therefor offsetting) shouldn’t be “cheap enough”, should it? Shouldn’t we really feel our emmissions (on our bank balance) in order to caring / start caring?
It is $35. You can spend $35 and offset a year’s worth of carbon emissions. It is not the case that ‘the climate cost per ton is higher currently’.
Because it’s so cheap, you can offset CO2 without caring.
If you want to put a mental block on not emitting, you’re welcome to do so, but it would be incorrect to deliberately pay more than the actual cost of offsetting those emissions. (This is what I personally do; I try to avoid emitting because I think it’s generally morally good to not be excessively wasteful, but I am under no illusions that it wouldn’t be very cheap for me to offset it). Frankly, at the end of the day, the biggest emitters in rich countries are industrial organisations and no amount of personal cutting-back is really going to prevent them from changing their behaviour anyway.
Hi Huw and thanks for sharing your approach towards offsetting.
I am wondering if these 35$ are giving us the impression that being the reason for co2 emissions is ok, as it is so cheap to offset. Shouldn’t we, as people believing in EA, still use higher pricec per ton Co2 to be reminded, that the climate cost per ton are higher currently, and even if we chose to take an effective organisation to offset, it doesn’t mean that we can emmit Co2 without caring?
The point is, emmiting (and therefor offsetting) shouldn’t be “cheap enough”, should it? Shouldn’t we really feel our emmissions (on our bank balance) in order to caring / start caring?
Two points there:
It is $35. You can spend $35 and offset a year’s worth of carbon emissions. It is not the case that ‘the climate cost per ton is higher currently’.
Because it’s so cheap, you can offset CO2 without caring.
If you want to put a mental block on not emitting, you’re welcome to do so, but it would be incorrect to deliberately pay more than the actual cost of offsetting those emissions. (This is what I personally do; I try to avoid emitting because I think it’s generally morally good to not be excessively wasteful, but I am under no illusions that it wouldn’t be very cheap for me to offset it). Frankly, at the end of the day, the biggest emitters in rich countries are industrial organisations and no amount of personal cutting-back is really going to prevent them from changing their behaviour anyway.