Offset* your air travel!

I have this specific recollection in college where I went to this musical concert alone (I think some plans to meet up with friends went awry... or I got stood up. Whatever.) I end up sitting next to this elderly gentleman who starts making polite conversation, asking what my major is, etc. I tell him it's environmental engineering, and he ducks his head down and asks me if I know what the biggest environmental cover-up today is. I say no (too many candidates come to mind!), and he replies "the airline industry. They put out 1/3 of the world's manmade carbon emissions." Now, I have a natural distrust of elderly folks as either senile or evil (I blame not having grandparents growing up). So I put it in the back of my head as something to google later. Of course, I never do, but sure enough a few years later this whole airline carbon thing starts really "taking off." Although 30% is waaaaay off. A quick google search revealed very little, except that he estimate is 3% in the EU and 5.5% in the UK. I also found this USAToday article on the growth of air travel and the potential impact on global warming.

I was hunting for airline tickets when I saw this on Orbitz.com:


Sure, it right above "add a magazine subscription," and I'm not sure what actually happens when you purchase the offset (does someone plant a tree? chain themselves to a tree? hug a tree?) but this seems like a good bargain for $5.50, right?

*Disclosure: I am not sold on the idea of anthropogenic global warming, and I'm DEFINITELY not sold on the idea of "offsets."