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Your Lyft Ride Is Now Carbon-Neutral. Your Uber Isn't
- masonic 9y agoBuying carbon offsets does not make your company "carbon neutral". It means (1) we are estimating (by some secret formula) the carbon impact of our drivers and (2) we are paying money to some outside agencies that may or may not actually sequester some amount of carbon... but they do give us a nice, glossy certificate. Carbon credits are being created out of thin air (literally) without even doing anything new toward sequestration. For example, Haliburton Forest in Ontario and the Headwaters Forest in California sell carbon credits for simply not cutting trees down, which is strictly banned in the first place (for Headwaters, at least). There's no indication that Lyft is even computing carbon impact of vehicles actually used, even assuming optimal fuel consumption for the given make and model. Rideshare vehicles tend to be larger and heavier than vehicles used by actual taxi companies. Purchasing indulgences is not the same as not sinning in the first place.