While I'm not very knowledgeable about carbon footprints and how they are "offset" I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of impact my RTW travels had on planet earth.
To begin, I went to the website Carbonfund.org which describes itself as "leading the fight against global warming." There's a nifty calculator which you can plug in data pertaining to your home, car, flight, bus/train, etc. For this exercise I only chose the flight category and plugged in my itinerary. The result: 8.93 tons of carbon or 17, 860 pounds. The air segments that did the most "damage" were: MSP - NRT @ 1.16 tons; HKG - JNB @ 1.20 tons; JNB - LHR @ 1.02 tons and MAD - SCL @ 1.21 tons. This pertains to the high mileage for each segment. Carbonfund claims that the average American has a carbon footprint of 50,000 pounds per year pertaining to emissions for home, car, travel, etc. So in one month's time and for air travel alone I produced 36% of that annual 50k. Oops! Now I'm afraid to do the math for the other components.
The website calculates that my impact for travels could be offset by paying $89.30. I'm not clear exactly on how paying this money would make a difference. Besides, I don't have the money to spend at the moment. Still, it's good to keep all of this in mind, I guess. Think of all the people who fly more miles than I did this time around. The fact that I don't fly 50,000+ miles every year made me feel better after this little exercise.
