My uncle told me buying carbon offsets was a waste, and after I spent $400 on them I feel like he had a point.

He said most of those programs just plant trees that die in five years, and sure enough the company I used got sued for fraud last month. Has anyone actually found a offset program that holds up long term?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray_martinez828d ago

Yeah "most of those programs just plant trees that die in five years" pretty much sums up how everything these days is a scam wrapped in good intentions.

gracec166d ago

Not sure it's quite that bad across the board. Some of those corporate tree planting things are definitely just PR stunts where they pick the cheapest saplings and never water them. But there are legit reforestation groups that work with local communities and plant native species that actually take hold. The big problem is people don't dig into which groups are real and which ones are just slapping a green label on junk. A lot of them are bad, but I've seen some small outfits in the tropics that have kept the same trees alive for 20 years. It's like everything else, you gotta check the fine print and not just trust the glossy photos.

jennifer8338d ago

Feeling really let down by all that greenwashing nonsense too.