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Shipping Goes Green

Turning off the lights when you’re not using them and walking instead of driving whenever possible are excellent ways to reduce your family’s carbon dioxide emissions. But many people may not think about the carbon they’re producing by shipping packages in the mail.

The shipping industry is the second greatest producer of carbon dioxide emissions, responsible for 600 million tones of carbon dioxide per year in the United States alone. Until recently, not much was being done to target this vast source of greenhouse gases.

Now a small nonprofit organization in Maryland is hoping to get the ball rolling, with a carbon offset program targeted specifically at the emissions produced from airplanes, trucks and ships carrying packages around the world. The company charges a small “offset” fee of up to 50 cents per package and uses the money to plant trees and fund solar and wind energy projects that help absorb carbon dioxide.

The group’s founders hope that as carbon offsets for shipping catch on and alternative power sources pick up steam, wind and solar power will become more competitive with the power produced by coal, the largest source of the world’s CO2 emissions. Ultimately, greater use of alternative fuels would reduce carbon emissions even further.

For more information on this story, click here.

For more information on the carbon offset program for shipping, visit www.carbonfund.org.  

For more information on what you can do to help slow climate change, go to www.fightglobalwarming.com.

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