Girlawhirl does her best to do whatever she can to save the earth. Recycling is so ingrained into her life that recently, at the party of a non-recycler, she collected bottles, cans and plastics in paper bags and brought them home with her so she could dispose of them in the proper bins. Fanatical? Maybe. But the truth is, with all of her travel, Girlawhirl leaves a pretty large footprint behind her…
The average American leads a life that produces far more carbon emissions than people who live in other countries. If the whole world lived as Americans, we'd need 2 ½ planets to support us! When it comes to greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide (CO2), it's not all about the burning of fossil fuels, but that's certainly one of the biggest offenders. And air travel produces a lot of CO2. The Best Foot Forward Company based in Oxford, England, has calculated that round trip air travel between London and Brazil produces 2391 kg of carbon dioxide. That's almost double what the average person living in Africa produces in a year (1200 kg) and over half of what the average world production per person is (4000 kg). An American who travels abroad once or twice a year would produce 9000 kg!
As she continues to hear reports of polar ice caps melting, and super-storm seasons approaching, all of this weighs heavily on Girlawhirl's mind and heart. But she's found a way to minimize the impact her air travel has on planet Earth. And it's called, clearly enough, MyClimate™.
Here's how it works: When she purchases an airline ticket, the carbon emissions of her trip are calculated and then matched to climate friendly projects around the world that would offset those emissions. An example is the construction of a solar water heating system, which would be an alternative to burning fossil fuels or wood to heat the water. So forests and fuel, and the carbon emissions from burning them, are all saved. Girlawhirl pays for the MyClimate ‘tickets' separately, and can write that off as a donation at the end of the year.
If her travel agent is part of the program, it's all pretty seamless. If she's required, as she is for business travel to use a specific agent that isn't part of the program, she can log on to my-climate.com and purchase her own carbon offset ‘tickets.'
To use a travel agency that specializes in carbon neutral trips and to find out more information about MyClimate™, click here.
To find out more information and purchase your own My-Climate carbon offset tickets (without the purchase of airline tickets) click here.