Purists would say, turn down the job. Big boys don’t cry, eco warriors don’t fly. Air travel emits as much carbon as 136m cars, at more than 650m tonnes per year. With this on their conscience, no wonder people look so miserable at airports.
But let’s face it, real life means you have to shorten the planet’s odds of survival by taking flights. (Would you video conference an ailing parent or take three weeks to get to their bedside on a cargo ship?)
To assuage your feelings of guilt, try carbon offsetting, where you tot up your emissions using an online carbon calculators and pay a company to counterbalance your climate pollution by investing in a project elsewhere. For your flight from Helsinki to London this would be around £20, according to climatefriendly.com. Some projects use forestry to absorb carbon elsewhere or invest in renewables. Others promise to retire permits from the international carbon market (fewer permits means they become more expensive, theoretically making it more expensive for others to pollute).
But when it comes to mud-slinging, carbon offsetting is caked. Epithets include “Enron environmentalism” and “snake-oil sales”. Joseph Romm of climateprogress.org compares it to “trying to save the Arctic by collecting left-over ice cubes and shipping them up north.”
Statements like these suggest that all air passengers are fossil fools, but it’s not true. Just like recycling’s “Reduce, reuse then recycle”, there’s a hierarchy: “Don’t fly, fly with the most efficient airline (always in economy), then offset.” So check efficiency first, using Atmosfair’s airline ranking (Air France comes top). Then choose your offset scheme – it must be verifiable, traceable and permanent. Only look at schemes that conform to the Verified Carbon Standard or Clean Development Mechanism.
As you work in eco charity you are your own expert in assessing “co-benefits” of on-the-ground projects. I like the layout and detail of ClimateCare’s projects. A few airlines offer you a chance to offset when you buy your ticket. But in 2007 the government passed on making this mandatory. Similarly, cap-and-trade has been delayed and blocked by the industry. Don’t rely on the airlines, in other words: this is a solo voyage to more responsible flying.
Green crush: the Aston Martin with solar panels
I’m not noted for my love of motorsport, but Aston Martin’s World Endurance model deserves some words of praise. The car uses solar panels on the roof to power support systems including the air conditioning – a life saver for drivers racing for six hours solid in Austin, Texas or Bahrain. The panels are capable of generating 300 watts per m2 when the car is still, but can they do the same when the car is in motion? Engineers plan to use data generated by the car to find out – the race is on to transfer the promising technology into everyday cars. While we’re handing out praise here: props to the World Endurance Championships for stopping using ‘grid girls’. Their thinking? That women in motorsport are drivers and engineers, not accessories.
Greenspeak: Megadroughts {‘megadraut} noun
A knock-on effect of climate change, megadroughts threaten to last for decades and trigger so-called ‘water wars’. Experts are watching California’s persistent drought closely
If you have an ethical dilemma, email Lucy at lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk
Follow Lucy Siegle on Twitter @lucysiegle
Follow the Observer Magazine on Twitter @ObsMagazine
