My carbon footprint after a year of travel and 25+ flights

• ~200 words • 0.7 minute read

I decided to calculate my carbon footprint for all the flights I took last year per carbonfootprint.com. It came in Somewhere between 7.934 and 15 metric tons per their calculations.

Yikes.

The cost of carbon offsets would come in somewhere around $300, but I have mixed feelings about that. It feels a little like paying someone else to diet for you. I also have some reservations about the way the carbon footprint is calculated and what it actually means — shouldn't it factor in how many people were actually on the flight? If one person offsets his or her carbon emissions from the same flight how does that work?

The literal emission quantity per individual isn't entirely the point though; the point is air-travel is a substantial contributor to air pollution and something worth paying attention to.

I was reminded of this article about the meteorologist who decided to give up flying:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/03/ipcc-climate-report-eric-holthaus