Comments MSully has made

good Quality carbon offsets work

Again,

Carbon offsets are not a way for you to atone for your sins of using fossil-derived energy, for the guilt you feel for driving an SUV (poorly) or sleeping with the stereo on all night, the heat cranked, and the window open in Oregon in February.

YES, if you are serious about addressing your impact then you should either move to another planet (or country) or modify your lifestyle as much as you can to reduce-reduce-reduce your eco-footprint as much as you can, and then (and only then) offset the CO2 from the energy you have to use.  C'mon, PEOPLE, that's the message that we need to get out there!

No one (on this site) would advocate we close all the hospitals and schools and stop producing food and medicine and other stuff - but we can begin to transition toward more sustainabile practices, use energy in more efficient ways, and promote new renewable energy projects, like I do with Native Energy to offset my home and my car.  

Of course, TREES ARE ALWAYS a great idea - just not as a means of tackling the global heating crisis.  That's temporary sequestration, not elimination of the problem - duh!   Trees don't last; they all eventually get harvested or burn, decay, and release their stored carbon into the atmosphere - they are supposed to because they are part of the ecosystem.  The solution to the problem we contribute to remains: we have to stop introducing carbon into the terrestrial ecocycle.    
             And, the only way to do that is to reduce our fossil fuel consumption - and overall resource consumption -- and work to change our sources of energy - to wind, solar, tidal, wave, biomass, geothermal, ch&p, etc.

High quality carbon offsets are a good first step because they can actually help to push fossil fuel-derived energy off the grid, thus reducing the carbon emissions without reducing energy.  When you combine new renewable energy projects with efficiencies you've got a dramatically reduced carbon footprint, which is a step in the right direction.  Yes, it works that way!

Again, make your eco-footprint smaller and smaller, and then offset the rest.  And stop planting trees and calling it offsetting your energy impact!!  Plant trees and call it the right thing to do for reforestation, eco-resotration, etc.

- m.sully

quitcher bitchin'