Just Maui'd

I think you are missed some of the point when you gave the advice on a "carbon-neutral wedding."  Perhaps the couple who asked you for advice had already booked the space, paid the deposit, printed the invitations, and otherwise irrevocably committed themselves to flying themselves and forty guests from San Diego to Kuai to tie the knot. In that case, it was kind to offer them the option of feeling better about the global warming and other environmental damage their wedding is causing, by paying some money to plant some trees. Some trees are better than no trees, after all.

However, for anyone who is planning a wedding and still has time to make responsible choices,  if you look a little more deeply at the first web site Umbra referred to, Flying Off to a Warmer Climate?,  you will find a FAQ that addresses carbon offsets. It isn't as cheerful as an Earth-loving  couple might hope.

Can't I just pay somebody to plant some trees to soak up the CO2 emissions from my flight?

There are many such "carbon offset" schemes, but the accounting of how much carbon is actually taken up by the trees is very unreliable. In many cases companies are just taking your money and doing what they were going to do anyway -so it doesn't help the climate.
Trees take a long time -several decades - to grow to maturity. During this time the CO2 emissions from your flight are still warming the atmosphere, and much of this heat will remain for hundreds of years in the oceans.
In some locations (especially peatlands) planting trees can cause net emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere, because they dry out the soil and allow microorganisms to oxidise it.
As a carbon storage, trees are not a long-term substitute for fossil fuel under the rocks. They may be decomposed by microorganisms, or burn in forest fires as the climate gets warmer and drier, in both cases returning the CO2 to the atmosphere.
And finally, remember the CO2 contributes only about a third to the total greenhouse warming effect from aircraft emissions....

the air travel industry is now growing by 7% each year and is by far the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases. ...

Most importantly, you need to remember that only a very small fraction of the world's population currently enjoys the luxury of air travel. Many more people aspire to the lifestyle of the "rich world", but the atmosphere could not bear the burden of everybody living such a lifestyle. To achieve a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will have to distribute emissions quotas more equitably, and people in the "rich world" have to change their lifestyle to set an example.

To which I would add the environmental destruction involved in drilling for oil, building and using pipelines or shipping it in tankers, and refining it, not to mention the oil wars engendered by endless use.

It seems pretty silly, after expending all that fuel and warming the climate by flying to Hawaii, to worry about the tiny relative amount of fuel they might save by car-pooling in Maui.

Each person would have to drive about 5000 miles  on Kuai to burn as much fuel as he or she expended on the flight. Kuai is a fairly small island... they'd get dizzy driving around in circles... Better first to reduce the environmental destruction involved in getting everyone vicinity the wedding, and then think about the on-site choices about food, local transportation, and so on.

We tend not to think about air flight damage. It happens so fast, many of the emissions are invisible, and the airplanes don't have rear view mirrors!

A truly "green" wedding would be a lasting gift of joy and love to each other, a shining example to all who aspire to a really good life, and the beginning of a legacy of environmental health and justice for their children and all the living beings to come.

Maybe they could charter a sailing ship to get to Hawaii?

True love,

Rachel

-- Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. --Ursula LeGuin

http://www.b-e-f.org/newsletter/july2005/july2005.htm

BEF "Greens" Two More Weddings

BEF Green Tags were used to green two weddings during the first half of 2005. Kari Smith and David Wooley's wedding included wine and champagne from solar-powered wineries and beer from a wind-powered brewery. Devra Bachrach and David Wang gave their guests an option to buy Green Tags as part of their online registry, which resulted in offsetting over 33,000 pounds of CO 2 and other greenhouse-gas emissions. Both couples also purchased enough Green Tags to offset all carbon dioxide emissions associated with guest air and auto travel and site energy use for their special day. In addition, Devra and David ingeniously incorporated a model turbine in the design of their wedding cake!

Check out our Event Calculator (http://www.greentagsusa.org/GreenTags/event_calculator_intro.cfm) to determine how many Green Tags it will take to green your next event.

I mean, Dick Cheney could hold a wedding in a giant open-air coal-fired refrigerator in Palm Springs, have all his guests drive over in their RV from wherever they live, and even use non-recycled paper plates; and he would have made his wedding more "carbon-neutral" than Sean's.

I don't mean to spoil the party, but think it's a bad idea for people and to try to make themselves feel good about something that isn't good by pretending and hiding behind eco-fluff.

Rather, they should realise and admit that it's not good but rather very damaging for the environment, and that, what's more, tons of other people are doing the same. Then hopefully they'll feel so guilty and geared for action that they'll get involved in, or at least give significant sums of money to organisations that fight for environmental sustainability.  

Jean-François Corbett

Now I'm trying to feature how these green tags could be sold by a local renewable energy coop, and the money invested in buying clean energy from local producers and sold to the local utility or consumers of electric transportation?  

Maybe it would work...

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

Another good thing to look at is where the dresses come from.  Buying hemp, organic or local are also options (that are usually more costly, but the 'destination wedding' implies a large budget)

Fold up the deed to a piece of land bought with the money normally spent on the ring, then fold it up in the bottom of the box, putting a cubic zirconia on top.  No diamond slaves exploited and a piece of land protected from exploitation also.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

The I Do Foundation is a non-profit organization that works with major retailers (including Gaiam) to donate a percentage of every gift registry purchase to the charity of your choice.  'I Do' will also set up a site for guests to donate directly to your favorite charities in lieu of a gift.  And when you're done, 'I Do' will recycle your wedding dress.

Here's the best part:  you can choose whatever organization you want to benefit from your guest's generosity, as long as they're an 'official' non-profit (read:  registered with the IRS).  So, you can keep the dough local.  Our designated recipients were a regional environmental ed organization, and the local women's resource center.  

We tried to do a 'no gift' policy at the wedding, but we found it bafflingly difficult to convince people that we really didn't want stuff.  (It worked with about 50% of our guests, but the older relatives are compulsive linen-and-flatware buyers.)  The solution?  Register at Gaiam.