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The Big Business (and Cheap Thrill) of Personal Carbon Credits

James Dinneen
OneZero
Published in
7 min readApr 6, 2020

Illustration: Mark Pernice

YYou’re probably guiltier than you think. That’s what I learned when I calculated my carbon footprint with Project Wren, a startup that sells carbon offsets to individuals. According to the program’s calculations, I’m responsible for 19.51 metric tons of carbon each year, a bit more than the average American and three times more than the global average. To rub it in further, the Project Wren website explained that my emissions are equivalent to those produced in manufacturing 10,817 burgers or taking 20 roundtrip flights from Los Angeles to Paris. Yikes.

Then came the pitch: For $15.70 a month, Project Wren would pay one of the three carbon offset projects they support to sequester or reduce emissions equivalent to my supersize footprint, about 1.6 metric tons per month (Wren’s option to offset the emissions from my entire life cost $4,631.04). I could choose from a “community tree planting” project in East Africa, “clean cooking fuel for refugees” in Uganda, or “tech-enabled Amazon rainforest protection” in Peru.

I picked community tree planting. Cha-ching.

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OneZero
OneZero

Published in OneZero

OneZero is a former publication from Medium about the impact of technology on people and the future. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

James Dinneen
James Dinneen

Written by James Dinneen

Writing on science/environment/misc. North East South West https://jamesdinneen.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @jamesNESW

Responses (4)

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If the cost of offseting our GHG emissions is so trivial why are the emissions still a problem. Seriously something has got to be wrong with the numbers. We are talking total emissions not excess emissions. To offset my family’s emissions is less…

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One critical issue was missed. When you plant a tree, you are rearranging the available carbon in the biosphere, from CO2 in the air to carbon chains in the wood. When the tree dies and rots or burns in 50 or 150 years, its carbon goes right back to…

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Carbon credits alone aren’t going to halt climate change.

Great writing. :)

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