Save Carbon By Using Wood

You can sequester some carbon yourself by buying durable products made from wood:

Forests are major sources of carbon sequestration in the United States. According to a Congressional Research Service report, forests store about 45 percent of terrestrial carbon and were estimated to sequester 2.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year in the 1990’s, or about one-third of annual man-made carbon emissions from fossil fuel and land use changes. Additionally, wood products serve as storage for carbon. Although the forest and wood products industries play vital roles in maintaining the current carbon balance, they could see additional opportunities through green house gas (GHG) reduction plans.

If you’re not in the market for a new dining set, you can buy carbon offsets instead and even get some free carbon offsets for your friends!

Carbon-Neutral in Singapore

It’s exciting to see the ethos of carbon neutrality spreading to the Asian Pacific region!

The first carbon-neutral building in the Asia Pacific was unveiled on Wednesday in Singapore.

A carbon-neutral building offsets the carbon footprints created in the process of construction and operation.

In Singapore, the building sector is the third largest contributor to carbon emissions after manufacturing and transport industries.

And so, it wants to encourage more green projects like Tampines Concourse, which used recycled materials widely to save on natural resources.

City Development, the developer of the three-storey office building, also bought carbon credits to offset the carbon dioxide it emitted during construction and during operations – a relatively new move in this part of Asia.

Bravo! Want to make your own home carbon neutral? You can do it for just a few dollars a year. Start off by calculating your carbon footprint, then buy some carbon offset credits, and you’re done!

Government Regulation is Complicated; Offsetting Your Own Carbon Is Simple!

Progressive Democrats of America has posted an informative article about the complexities of government-run carbon markets and some of the potential pit-falls.

Wall Street firms recognize the lucrative potential of the carbon market and have already stepped up their lobbying efforts. According to Public Integrity, “Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, insurance companies like AIG and private equity firms had virtually no reps on Capitol Hill working on global warming policy in 2003; by last year, they had about 130 climate lobbyists, the Center for Public Integrity’s analysis of Senate lobbying disclosure forms shows. About 20 additional lobbyists worked for firms and organizations wholly dedicated to carbon marketing last year.”

The policy demands of these financial firms may vary, but most will push for weaker regulatory standards on carbon markets, larger volumes of carbon offset authorization, and provisions to increase the volatility of carbon prices, all of which would hinder progress on reducing U.S. emissions. For example, the financial industry will continually call for carbon allowance trading to be allowed OTC (over-the-counter), a form of derivatives trading that gives firms and traders the most leeway to leverage, speculate, arbitrage, and maximize profit by avoiding regulations. And the greater the volatility in the carbon allowance and offset market – and the larger the volume of offsets allowed–the more trading, arbitrage, and speculation these firms can benefit from.

While we’re waiting for our politicians to figure all that out, why not take some direct action on your own? You can buy carbon offsets through Project Purify for just a few dollars without any complexity at all!

Corporations Don’t Care About Climate Change

This probably isn’t a surprise to you, but a new study show that 95% of corporations don’t care about climate change.

In “Reclaiming Transparency in a Changing Climate,” Ceres, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Center for Energy and Environmental Security reviewed more than 6,000 SEC filings from S&P 500 companies between 1995 and 2008. The report finds that just 5 percent of annual reports from these firms laid out a strategy for managing climate change-related risks, while 76 percent of companies didn’t even mention climate change in their reports.

We can’t depend on the government or corporations to save our planet from climate change. We’ve got to do it ourselves! If you haven’t already, buy some carbon credits to offset your carbon use, and give some credits to your friends! Together we can win the fight against climate change.

Climate Change Is Destroying African Farm Land

As if Africa doesn’t already have enough problems, now climate change is destroying African farm land!

A new study by researchers from the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the United Kingdom’s Waen Associates has found that by 2050, hotter conditions, coupled with shifting rainfall patterns, could make anywhere from 500,000 to one million square kilometers of marginal African farmland no longer able to support even a subsistence level of food crops. …

The researchers then considered the impact of climate change in these regions and found that even in situations where climate change is moderated somewhat by global reductions in carbon emissions, a large number of farmers most likely will still face a considerable deterioration in growing conditions. The key measure was whether climate change under two widely used climate models—which offer projections based on high and low greenhouse-gas emission scenarios—would cause the number of “reliable crop growing days” to drop below 90 days between 2000 and 2050.

They concluded that under scenarios in which carbon emissions remain high, the number of reliable growing days would drop below 90 for almost one million square kilometers of marginal growing lands in Africa. Assuming a “lower emission scenario,” they project about 500,000 square kilometers would fail to reach the 90-day mark.

This study is just more evidence that the governments of the world aren’t going to be able to solve this problem on their own. The problem of climate change belongs to all of us, and we’ve each got to make a contribution to the solution. One of the easiest first steps you can take is to buy carbon credits to offset your personal carbon use. Carbon offsets also make great gifts for your earth-conscious friends, or even skeptics!

(Via Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog.)

Climate Change Already Hurting World’s Poor

Lest we grow complacent by believing that climate change is a far-off danger that can be worried about “later”, it’s important to note stories like these: climate change has already led to the desertion of 160 farming villages in Syria.

Some 160 villages in northern Syria were deserted by their residents in 2007 and 2008 because of climate change, according to a study released on Tuesday.

The report drawn up by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) warns of potential armed conflict for control of water resources in the Middle East. …

In Syria and also in Jordan, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, “climate change threatens to reduce the availability of scarce water resources, increase food insecurity, hinder economic growth and lead to large-scale population movements,” the report said.

Climate change affects real people, right now. Buying carbon credits seems like such a small, simple thing, but if we all work together we can put a stop to the damage that’s being done to our planet. While you’re at it, give some free carbon credits to your friends to raise their awareness!

Denying Climate Change Could Doom Planet

Could climate change deniers be dooming our planet?

The phenomenon of denial operates at an ideological level as well. Our capitalist society’s ethic of individual responsibility and accumulation, dissected 100 years ago by the sociologist Max Weber, sees these activities as a “calling,” and therefore “good.” But the despoiling of the planet changes that view – not only can individualism lead to devastation, but only an affirmative, collective decision can remediate the danger. The climate challenge, therefore, undermines the dominant ideology, just as Jor-El’s analysis did on Krypton.

You’ll have to follow the link if you want to understand the Krypton angle, but I can promise you that individual responsibility still has a place in the climate change debate! You can personally make a difference in the fight against climate change by calculating your carbon footprint and buying carbon offsets for as little as $1 to make your life carbon neutral.

Reforestation and Carbon Offsets

Here’s a couple of guys who take climate change so seriously that they’re planting 140,000 trees!

In fact, the timing couldn’t be better for embarking on a large-scale tree planting project, since the forestry industry in northern Saskatchewan has seen a steep decline in activity in the last few years.

“The planters we’ve talked to said that two years ago they were planting 11 million trees. Now they’re planting 1.1 million (trees),” Kalen said. “If we can keep getting more projects, then we can grow this (businesses) and hopefully help he forestry get back on its feet.”

That sounds like a lot of work. If you’d like to be carbon neutral but don’t feel like planting a bazillion trees, you can always buy carbon offsets from Project Purify with the click of your mouse. And hey, carbon offsets make great gifts for your friends!

Worldwide Carbon Market Doubled in 2008

Carbon offset trading isn’t just a fringe market anymore: in fact, its volume doubled in 2008!

The market grew to $126 billion last year, up from $63 billion in 2007 and nearly 12 times the value in 2005, the World Bank said in a report at the Carbon Expo conference in Barcelona.

A total 4.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming, were traded last year, up 61 percent from the 3 billion traded in 2007.

Thanks to Project Purify, it’s easier than ever for regular citizens and small companies to buy carbon offset credits to offset their production of greenhouse gases. If you haven’t already, why not at least get your feet wet with some free carbon offsets?

How Will Cap-and-Trade Work?

Scientific American has a great explanation of how cap-and-trade will work when it passes Congress.

In 2016, the U.S. economy would produce an estimated 7.3 billion tons of CO2, based on current growth forecasts. Power generators and other business sectors covered by the Waxman-Markey bill would put out 6 billion tons of emissions under business as usual.

But the cap would restrict their emissions to 5.3 billion tons. Companies could close the gap, 784 million tons, by reducing emissions, shutting down some operations, switching to cheaper fuels, buying allowances from companies that did not need them, or making carbon emission offsets.

Thanks to James Hrynyshyn for the link!

Remember: you don’t need to wait for the federal government to take action on your own! You can buy carbon offset credits from Project Purify for just a few dollars and do your part to become carbon neutral; when you do, you’ll even get free carbon credits you can give to your friends!