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Your letters and Tales from the Bush
I read Simon Birch’s article on carbon offsetting with much interest (Carbon offsetting: guilt-free flying?, Spring 2020). I cannot help being somewhat cynical about this topic. Somewhere there are a lot of companies, shareholders and individuals making a comfortable living out of attempting to sell these indulgences to us. The criteria and mathematics are vague to a lot of people. Is the amount of carbon dioxide from individuals, ever factored into their equations?
Maybe one day we will realise the absurdities of these. They are only a mask over our profligate way of life. Modern aeroplanes are better designed now, being both lighter and more fuel efficient. We should not feel guilty of flying, as economies depend upon it. Flying cannot become the exclusive domain of politicians and wildlife film-makers lecturing to us.
He stresses in the last paragraph an important point of people taking ownership of their lives and consequences in order to reduce climate change. This is difficult to put into practise, however, it is well worth mentioning. We can all play our part by reducing our burden on the planet. We can demand that companies build durability into their products, instead of obsolescence; recycle more and we can practise having smaller families.
Norman Marshall, Llandudno