Are you looking for a way to reduce your carbon footprint? Since you’re here, you’re probably worried about the environment and the effects of global warming. The good news is that you can reduce or offset your carbon footprint by buying carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are a short-term solution to reduce emissions without changing how much carbon we emit.
Though carbon offsets are a great way to reduce our global carbon emissions, they are only the first step. It’s currently impossible to fully stop using fossil fuels, but because they are the biggest driver of climate change, the more we can offset them, the better. Just until we can stop using them altogether.
To start offsetting your carbon, you can calculate your carbon footprint today with our calculator tool. Then choose from a carbon offset project to start helping in the fight against climate change.
What are carbon offsets?
A carbon offset is any project that reduces carbon emissions from the atmosphere. Carbon can be reduced through removal or avoidance. For example, the removal of carbon would look like a forest where the trees absorb the carbon and release it into the soil to keep the plant life healthy, or removal can look like methane capture machines, which pull methane from the air and safely store it. Avoidance, on the other hand, can look like renewable energy like solar panels, hydropower, or wind farms. All of these energy-generating projects don’t use fossil fuels, which makes them environmentally friendly with no carbon emissions. When you purchase a carbon offset, you are investing in a project like the ones above that is reducing emissions, which cancels out the emissions you create.
Why are carbon offsets important?
Carbon emissions are the leading cause of climate change, and to stop global warming and its deadly effects of it, we need to drastically reduce carbon in the atmosphere. Because our world runs mostly on fossil fuels still, it is impossible to stop using them and emitting carbon altogether. Therefore, a good first step to reducing emissions is carbon offsets. Although we are still emitting carbon, a carbon offset can absorb the amount of carbon you emit, making your carbon footprint neutral.
5 Reasons to buy a carbon offset
Carbon offsets are the first step in saving our planet from climate change. Offsets help rebuild forests, habitats, communities, and keep our Earth healthy. If we want to win the fight against climate change and ensure that global warming doesn’t cause disastrous living conditions, we must reduce carbon. The easiest way to reduce carbon without disrupting our daily routines is by investing in carbon offsets.
1. Help the planet by reducing greenhouse gas pollution
When you invest in carbon offsets, you help reduce carbon emissions. Your investment in carbon offsets allows more trees to be planted or more wind farms to be built. This means less carbon in the long run, and less greenhouse gas being emitted into the atmosphere.
2. Fight climate change
Because the leading cause of climate change is carbon emissions, investing in carbon offsets will make a positive impact on our global warming crisis. If everyone invested in more carbon offsets than carbon they emit, we would all be carbon negative (meaning removing more carbon from the air than we produce), which would help slow climate change at a much faster rate.
3. Help communities
The hard truth about carbon emissions is that, eventually, they will cause disastrous living conditions for humans and every other species. If we don’t start reducing carbon, the quality and quantity of fresh water will decrease, the ice caps will melt (causing extinction for species like polar bears, penguins, seals, etc.), resulting in rising sea levels and displacing millions of people. Carbon offsets help communities by ensuring safety, reliable food and water, and maintaining ecosystems that protect us from natural disasters like flooding.
4. Balance your carbon footprint
A “carbon footprint” is the amount of carbon you emit from your daily activities. The average person emits 2.3 pounds of carbon per day through driving, cooking, and consumption of goods that used fossil fuels to get to us. Investing in carbon offsets is an investment to cancel out the carbon we create daily (which is impossible to avoid entirely), and helps us get closer to a healthier, cleaner Earth. Use our tool to calculate your carbon footprint to see which carbon offset you should purchase.
5. Save money by going green
Going green is often an expression that we hear and think of as expensive alternatives to what we use every day. But did you know that you can actually save money by going green? Here are some examples:
- Take the bus or carpool – skip the cost of gas and vehicle maintenance while reducing carbon emissions.
- Invest in solar panels – Sunlight is unlimited energy. Reduce your energy bills while reducing your carbon footprint.
- Thrift clothing – A new pair of blue jeans uses 1,800 gallons of water on average to produce, and then uses carbon emissions to be shipped to stores or to your home. Thrifting already-made clothing is a great way to save money and help the environment.
Where can you buy a carbon offset?
As an individual, You can buy a carbon offset through Power Wizard. Use our calculator to calculate your carbon footprint, then choose an offset project you’d like to support.
Power Wizard is committed to helping our members lead the charge in carbon reduction, and we only work with verified trusted carbon offset projects. It takes one person to start the climate change revolution, and that person could be you.