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Carbon Balancing Act

Every time you drive your car, you are producing emissions that contribute to global warming. But let’s face it: People need their cars to get to work, to run errands and even to get to the places we go just for fun. Americans aren’t about to give up their cars.

But with the growing awareness of global warming and what it’s doing to our planet, many people are looking for ways to reduce their contribution to this problem. In response, a market for alternative energy sources has emerged, and along with it, campaigns to accelerate investment in renewable energy sources through “carbon offset” programs.

Most recently, oil company BP launched a website that encourages people to calculate the emissions they produce driving their cars and to offset them by joining BP’s nonprofit initiative, TargetNeutral. This program invests consumer contributions in renewable energy initiatives around the world, such as a program that turns agricultural biowaste into clean power in Bihar, India.

Critics say these programs aren’t as useful as the companies that run them would like you to think, but they may be valuable in teaching people about how much their actions impact the planet. In fact, there are many ways that people can reduce their impact on global warming, by reducing their use of fossil fuels (driving less, ride sharing, and combining errands, for example) and not wasting energy.

For more ideas about how consumers can help stop global warming, please visit www.fightglobalwarming.com. For more information on BP’s new initiative, visit www.targetneutral.com.

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To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org