Are “Carbon-Offset” charities legitimate?
(You guys don’t have enough questions, so I’m splitting this one into 2 pieces. See “Find me a few legitimate carbon-offset charities in the US” for the second part.) I’ve heard about some organizations / charities / etc. that advertise that they can “offset your carbon footprint” to make you carbon-neutral. To use a British-ism, some of them sound pretty “sketchy”. Some of them seem to be for-profit, which makes me suspicious of their motives. So, my questions are: In general, are “carbon-offset” organizations legitimate, or is the area rife with shady / questionable operators? Are these organizations able to accurately offset your footprint? (I’m just asking for order of magnitude answers here, not, “you paid for 23.71 tons of offset and they delivered 22.95 tons”.) Is there any reason why one should not contribute to these charities? Thanks, J.
