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Hmmm ... yes? Actually ... If you instead gave that $1USD/day to whatever carbon ofsetting startup out there you would neutralize your carbon footprint and eve

Hmmm ... yes? Actually ... If you instead gave that $1USD/day to whatever carbon ofsetting startup out there you would neutralize your carbon footprint and even go into "negative emissions" territory. So yes, that dollar could save the earth.

vosper 5y ago
Greenpeace claims that carbon offsetting doesn’t really work https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/the-biggest-problem-with-carbon-offsetting-is-that-it-doesnt-really-work/ https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/the-biggest-problem-with-...
- moralestapia 5y ago
  Err ... that's an opinion from a guest writer on Greenpeace's blog. Anyone could, thus, opine in the opposite direction and we're back to where we started. To be fair she raises some valid points but they all revolve around tree-based carbon offsetting. On the last couple years, there has been an explosion in carbon removal techniques and startups who, as the term says, literally and measurably take carbon away from the atmosphere. I believe this to be the kind of solution that makes sense, and, regarding costs, it is still within the realm of "offset your personal emissions for $1/day".
  - vosper 5y ago
    Can you point to some available and verified carbon removal techniques that I can spend a dollar per day on?
    - moralestapia 5y ago
      See my other comment here, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28582012 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28582012
adrianN 5y ago
Carbon offsetting as it is sold today is mostly a scam.
- moralestapia 5y ago
  >mostly a scam Citation needed. I am familiar with the field and can tell you that there's plenty of honest, transparent companies working on this.
  - adrianN 5y ago
    How many of those companies actually put atmospheric carbon back in the ground, sequestered in a form that it stable for at least a couple of generations? As far as I'm aware you either pay for some trees not being cut down (for how long?) or you pay for measures that prevent carbon emissions by e.g. subsidizing more efficient cooking stoves. Both methods are not completely useless (which I why I said "mostly"), but they're not really unburning the fossil fuels I used. They also don't scale very well. I'm actually looking for ways to offset my emissions, so I'd really appreciate some pointers if you're familiar with the space.
    - moralestapia 5y ago
      There's a handful but to be honest most of them are still developing their technology so they could be vaporware in the end. One of the most mature ones, though, is Climeworks [1], and you can buy offsets from them already. 1: https://climeworks.com/ https://climeworks.com/

vosper 5y ago

Greenpeace claims that carbon offsetting doesn’t really work https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/the-biggest-problem-with-carbon-offsetting-is-that-it-doesnt-really-work/ https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/the-biggest-problem-with-...

moralestapia 5y ago
Err ... that's an opinion from a guest writer on Greenpeace's blog. Anyone could, thus, opine in the opposite direction and we're back to where we started. To be fair she raises some valid points but they all revolve around tree-based carbon offsetting. On the last couple years, there has been an explosion in carbon removal techniques and startups who, as the term says, literally and measurably take carbon away from the atmosphere. I believe this to be the kind of solution that makes sense, and, regarding costs, it is still within the realm of "offset your personal emissions for $1/day".
- vosper 5y ago
  Can you point to some available and verified carbon removal techniques that I can spend a dollar per day on?
  - moralestapia 5y ago
    See my other comment here, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28582012 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28582012

adrianN 5y ago

Carbon offsetting as it is sold today is mostly a scam.

moralestapia 5y ago
>mostly a scam Citation needed. I am familiar with the field and can tell you that there's plenty of honest, transparent companies working on this.
- adrianN 5y ago
  How many of those companies actually put atmospheric carbon back in the ground, sequestered in a form that it stable for at least a couple of generations? As far as I'm aware you either pay for some trees not being cut down (for how long?) or you pay for measures that prevent carbon emissions by e.g. subsidizing more efficient cooking stoves. Both methods are not completely useless (which I why I said "mostly"), but they're not really unburning the fossil fuels I used. They also don't scale very well. I'm actually looking for ways to offset my emissions, so I'd really appreciate some pointers if you're familiar with the space.
  - moralestapia 5y ago
    There's a handful but to be honest most of them are still developing their technology so they could be vaporware in the end. One of the most mature ones, though, is Climeworks [1], and you can buy offsets from them already. 1: https://climeworks.com/ https://climeworks.com/