Think Bigg

I’m about to retract my earlier post on TerraPass.

Though I support the idea of living carbon-neutral, I’m beginning to question the merits of handing out wads of cash to companies who may or may not know what to do with it. With the entire world now focused on pursuing alternative energy solutions, are the business school founders of TerraPass going to determine accurately the highest and best use of my funds?

Here’s an alternative that seems to balance the scales more directly: Trees for the Future.

Trees for the Future began in the 1970s, planting trees throughout the world. Nearly 20 years later, the group claims credit for the planting of over 50 million trees!

Not only does planting a tree work directly to sequester the atmosphere’s excess carbon dioxide, planting trees carries the added benefit of keeping people productive on their lands, and preserving their traditional livelihoods and cultures for generations to come.

Here’s my suggestion:

1. Use the super-slick TerraPass website to calcuate your carbon emissions for any given activity.

2. Once you’ve determined how much carbon you’ve released, head over to Trees for the Future and purchase a Tree Planting Certificate to offset the offending activity. Not only will you sequester enough carbon in one year to balance out your carbon emissions, your tree will continue to pull CO2 out of the air for years to come!

At a cost of just $.10 per tree, it’s hard to imagine an activity that provides a bigger bang for the buck. Trees are not exactly a high tech solution, but perhaps a little less tech and a little more nature is the antidote we need most.

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