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Does this exist: a simple carbon impact calculator paired with a place to buy offsets? maybe one that just pulls all your receipts from your email?

ajdegol 7y ago
The Tyndall Travel Tracker has a fairly simple carbon calculator (https://travel.tyndall.ac.uk/); https://travel.tyndall.ac.uk/); with respect to offsetting there is an ongoing debate currently about how best to achieve this. It is thought that offsetting carbon alone is quite a grey area at present (e.g., trees planted today will offset over 25 years but the damage is done in the now, also many offsetting schemes are...scammy) - we are currently discussing strategies to offset with more than carbon, including development activities as well as biodiversity protection; the problems can be quite linked. My personal hope is to liaise with some of the best researchers in the world regarding offsetting and have an approved offsetting scheme, which can be applied anywhere, that updates based on the current best understanding; we would then bring this capability into a newly built travel tracker (it's closer to a prototype atm). Please let me know if this is something you'd find interesting.
- criddell 7y ago
  > there is an ongoing debate currently about how best to achieve this My comment was based on the cost to directly pull CO2 out of the air at industrial quantities, not indirect methods like planting trees.
  - ajdegol 7y ago
    We do have experts regarding things like BECCS also; the goal is to have a multi-pronged approach maximising for efficacy.
mockingbirdy 7y ago
There are many calculators that offer a way to donate trees: https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_calculators/new https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_calculators/new https://www.clevel.co.uk/flight-carbon-calculator/ https://www.clevel.co.uk/flight-carbon-calculator/ https://trees.org/carboncalculator/ https://trees.org/carboncalculator/
- hokkos 7y ago
  Those are fake feel good offset, it price a Paris-NYC round trip with 2.2 tCO2eq at 52€, but the only serious future project of durable carbon capture that I know price it at 600$ the tCO2eq, this would be a 1320$ offset.
  - criddell 7y ago
    The last time I read about this, CO2 sequestration was $100-$200 per metric ton: https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2018/06/team-provides-first-plan-for-commercially-viable-industrial-scale-carbon-removal-plant https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2018/06/team-provides-firs...
    - hokkos 7y ago
      Their future target price, not the current one.

ajdegol 7y ago

The Tyndall Travel Tracker has a fairly simple carbon calculator (https://travel.tyndall.ac.uk/); https://travel.tyndall.ac.uk/); with respect to offsetting there is an ongoing debate currently about how best to achieve this. It is thought that offsetting carbon alone is quite a grey area at present (e.g., trees planted today will offset over 25 years but the damage is done in the now, also many offsetting schemes are...scammy) - we are currently discussing strategies to offset with more than carbon, including development activities as well as biodiversity protection; the problems can be quite linked. My personal hope is to liaise with some of the best researchers in the world regarding offsetting and have an approved offsetting scheme, which can be applied anywhere, that updates based on the current best understanding; we would then bring this capability into a newly built travel tracker (it's closer to a prototype atm). Please let me know if this is something you'd find interesting.

criddell 7y ago
> there is an ongoing debate currently about how best to achieve this My comment was based on the cost to directly pull CO2 out of the air at industrial quantities, not indirect methods like planting trees.
- ajdegol 7y ago
  We do have experts regarding things like BECCS also; the goal is to have a multi-pronged approach maximising for efficacy.

mockingbirdy 7y ago

There are many calculators that offer a way to donate trees: https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_calculators/new https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_calculators/new https://www.clevel.co.uk/flight-carbon-calculator/ https://www.clevel.co.uk/flight-carbon-calculator/ https://trees.org/carboncalculator/ https://trees.org/carboncalculator/

hokkos 7y ago
Those are fake feel good offset, it price a Paris-NYC round trip with 2.2 tCO2eq at 52€, but the only serious future project of durable carbon capture that I know price it at 600$ the tCO2eq, this would be a 1320$ offset.
- criddell 7y ago
  The last time I read about this, CO2 sequestration was $100-$200 per metric ton: https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2018/06/team-provides-first-plan-for-commercially-viable-industrial-scale-carbon-removal-plant https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2018/06/team-provides-firs...
  - hokkos 7y ago
    Their future target price, not the current one.