Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter

NEWS ABOUT: carbon offsets

carbon offsets stories: 10 news summaries

 'Counterproductive' 
 Offsets Ditched 

Green flying schemes salve consciences, not environment

Nov 18, 09 2:54 AM CST
(Newser) - Carbon offsets are becoming big business, but many emissions experts say green travel is too good to be true. Responsible Travel was one of the first travel firms to offer customers the chance to pay extra money to help offset emissions caused by their air miles. But it has now... More »

MORE ABOUT:
climate change • carbon dioxide • carbon offsets • air travel • carbon emissions

(Newser) - Global warming is real, but Al Gore’s crusade to curb carbon emissions is misguided and will squander money that could be applied cheaply and efficiently to those problems now, Danish statistician Bjørn Lomborg writes in Esquire. “Here’s the truth: There are better, more cost-effective ways to... More »

MORE ABOUT:
climate change • Al Gore • global warming • carbon offsets • malaria • famine • humanitarian aid • carbon emissions • Bjorn Lomborg

OPINION

 Climate Bill Doesn't 
 Go Far Enough 


Jun 27, 09 5:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - The Waxman-Markey climate change bill isn’t as bad for business as its detractors claim, and “that’s the problem,” Bryan Walsh writes in Time. Because of concessions to coal and farm states that depend on the carbon economy, the bill is watered down and seeks to... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Congress • cap and trade • carbon offsets • House of Representatives • climate change legislation • carbon emissions • Obama administration • Waxman-Markey • energy efficiency

(Newser) - The California government is preparing to enter into the "forest bank" business in a bid to save woodlands and battle carbon pollution and climate change, reports the Los Angeles Times. The state is expected to roll out a California "cabon market" that may be expanded elsewhere in... More »

MORE ABOUT:
California • pollution • carbon footprint • carbon offsets • carbon • air pollution • logging • timber • carbon emissions • redwoods

Fliers Ease Carbon Guilt
Via Donations

San Fran airport
to offer pollution
offsets at new kiosks

Dec 24, 08 5:51 PM CST
(Newser) - Guilty about the carbon footprint of your frequent flights? Have a few bucks to spare and time to kill at San Francisco's airport? The firm 3Degrees is banking on such a combination as it prepares to roll out the nation's first fleet of kiosks offering carbon offsets. No one is... More »

MORE ABOUT:
San Francisco • carbon footprint • carbon offsets • green energy • air travel • sustainability

Germany Pledges Billions for Rainforest Protection

Funds tripled by 2012, add $785M a year after

May 28, 08 2:33 PM CDT
(Newser) - Germany will spend billions of euros protecting tropical rainforests in an effort to halt global warming. Chancellor Angela Merkel said today at the United Nations' biodiversity conference that Germany will increase its funding for the conservation of rainforests from $330 million to $1.1 billion in the next three years... More »

MORE ABOUT:
environment • United Nations • Angela Merkel • Germany • global warming • carbon offsets • rainforest • Chancellor of Germany • tropical forests • biodiversity conference

TRAVEL

 Frolic Guilt-Free in Costa Rica 

Flight, hotel promise to offset vacation's carbon footprint

Apr 15, 08 6:38 PM CDT
(Newser) - If carbon-footprint guilt is keeping you from taking a vacation, one company has your sun-soaked answer, TreeHugger reports. From the domestic flight to the hotel stay—and even airport transfers in biodiesel vans—NatureVacations' eco-friendly package to Costa Rica promises to offset every ounce of carbon you produce on your... More »

MORE ABOUT:
travel • carbon offsets • ecotourism • Costa Rica • green travel • eco friendliness • NatureVacations • NatureAir

House's $89K in Carbon Offsets Do Virtually Nothing

Environmentalists call payments 'waste of taxpayer money'

Jan 28, 08 3:14 PM CST
(Newser) - Whatever the good intentions were, the $89,000 the House of Representatives spent on carbon offsets doesn’t seem to have done much, the Washington Post reports. Most of the money went to fund programs that were going on anyway or had already ended. “It demonstrated why offsets... More »

MORE ABOUT:
climate change • Congress • carbon offsets • House of Representatives • carbon emissions

Do Carbon 'Offsets' Really Offset Anything?

Inconvenient Truth director says offsets have 'symbolic quality'

Sep 2, 07 4:09 PM CDT
(Newser) - Everyone from Al Gore to Coldplay has jumped on the carbon offset bandwagon, but the Los Angeles Times reports that their payments don’t actually make the air any cleaner. Here's how they work: "Offset” companies invest in existing clean energy and win the right to sell “reductions”... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Al Gore • pollution • greenhouse gases • global warming • carbon offsets • fossil fuel • FTC • An Inconvenient Truth • methane digester • Native Energy • carbon emissions

Carbon Offsets Are Often Scams

Trading on eco-guilt, firms are selling worthless carbon credits

Apr 26, 07 7:56 PM CDT
(Newser) - Carbon offsets—the credits gas-guzzling consumers buy to cancel out their carbon production—may do little or nothing more than assuage consciences, a Financial Times investigation concludes. Some companies sell worthless credits; others use them to finance environmental projects they had planned anyway. And consumers have no means to know... More »

MORE ABOUT:
climate change • environment • global warming • carbon footprint • consumer • carbon offsets • carbon trading • carbon production • carbon emissions

10 Stories


from our news partners