The world is getting hotter and we have seen the bad effects of climate change around us. As we fight this war against climate change, everybody plays an important role in reducing their carbon footprint no matter how small the effort is. There are various ways for us to lessen our carbon footprint and carbon offset is one of them.
Carbon offset simply means any activities that promote the reduction or removal of CO2 from our air to compensate for CO2 emissions that are done elsewhere. Carbon offset includes the actions of either reducing carbon emissions or increasing the removal and storage of CO2 from the atmosphere. For example, company X that is in the manufacturing industry must release CO2 in order to operate, therefore more trees must be planted to compensate for the emissions done by company X.
Carbon offsetting is vital to ensure that we are able to keep our global temperature below 1.5℃ by 2050 and to curb climate change. The purpose of carbon offsetting is to basically share the responsibility of reducing or removing CO2 from the air among all of us to counteract the CO2 that is being emitted. We all share the same air containing the same CO2, so it really does not matter where we remove it as long as it is removed.
Everybody is involved including individuals, businesses, organisations and the government from anywhere around the world in efforts of carbon offsetting. An action as simple as using an LED light bulb at home is considered as carbon offsetting. Other carbon offsetting actions include financing green projects and rehabilitation of forests that are usually done by businesses or the government.
Ultimately, all these actions we take today are aimed at reducing or removing CO2 from our air. The more carbon we offset, the safer we are from climate change! All carbon offsetting actions must be taken now because climate change does not wait for us. So what carbon offsetting actions have you already taken?
