Carbon Offset to Replenish Damage

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to make it through the winter without heating? What about walking 30 miles to work? I don't know about you, but I find such questions very challenging.

Our ancestors, even a few decades back, could not imagine the technologies that would invade our lives--and ultimately change the way we live and even those primal of decision, such as how to eat or where to live. Today, we cannot live without many conveniences... be it the Internet, the washing machine, the microwave oven or cellular phone. Obviously, we wouldn't cease to exist without devices, but do we want to live without them—without the ability to fly to visit family, or to work at the job of our choice?

Some do, and completely deconstruct contemporary lifestyle to recreate a green one. Some don't have the choice to go off the grid, and other times it would be a huge lifestyle change that doesn't make sense at a given time. No, most people can or will not change their lifestyles that drastically. Many developed world people feel that they have grown into this lifestyle. It is a part of who we are, of our modern culture.

Although our advances give us many advantages, the problem is that our lifestyle is leaving behind a footprint that is as ugly and destructive as the soot-covered footprints of a burglar on an obscenely expensive, white carpet. It is called the carbon footprint. Before I write more about
it, let me explain why I am using the "burglar" analogy here.

Busted Red Handed: We are Burglars
If we live a typical modern life, we are stealing from the planet earth. Stealing what? How about trees, minerals, fresh air, ozone layer, oxygen? And just like a burglar leaves behind a finger or a footprint on the crime scene, we are leaving our carbon footprint on planet earth.

Now, most of us are not malicious at heart, and the last thing we want is to be referred to as "thieves". But even though we recycle and conserve, we don’t want to give up every aspect of our carbon-burning lives. There is a middle ground, though. I am sure if I told you there was a way to give back to mother earth even a fraction of what we are taking, you wouldn't think twice before you agreed to do your bit.

Turning our Red Hands Green: Paying it Back and Paying it Forward
If you don’t already know, the best option we have of redeeming ourselves, happens to be a process called carbon offsetting. In carbon offsetting, human beings take curative measures to sequester the CO2 that is a by-product from our daily consumptions.

Planting trees or bamboo helps the planet take the carbon damage and transform it through the plants into growth that we can use. The air is cleaner, the land and waterways are cleaner, and we have renewable resources in the future.

One way to offset your family’s carbon damage is to directly plant sequestering trees and bamboo. This is not always a very practical or feasible process, though. Instead, most participating individuals and institutions send offset funding to companies that manage large carbon offsetting groves. Some people make monthly contributions; others make special one-time payments as they can or to balance out a new car purchase or a flight across the country. Others give offset credits as eco-friendly gifts. Instead of buying wasteful products that simply aren’t needed, by having plants installed in the name of a new baby or retiring worker is a lovely gesture towards a healthy future. One way or another, the donation fits in with your other conservation efforts to give back to planet earth.

If we pay it back and pay it forward, we aren’t a thief anymore. We are simply good members of the human family who clean up after ourselves.

Buying Carbon Offset Credits
There is an old proverb whose first two lines read:
"We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors; we borrow it from our Children."
If you can consider this as our wake up call, then you would probably find a rejoinder to it in the last two lines:
"We are more than the sum of our knowledge; we are the products of our imagination."
So imagine a better world, and start giving back by the way of carbon offsetting. Make it a habit. Make it happen.