Abrupt Climate Change

Posts Tagged ‘carbon pollution’

For many people, the thought of doing something to cut emissions and prevent global warming is a drastic one, as many people think they would have to give up their sport utility vehicles for a hybrid or equip their homes with solar panels and go off of the electrical grid. One of the more overlooked ideas that has slowly grown steam after being successful on the corporate level is the idea of purchasing a carbon credit.

Companies in countries around the world buy carbon credits to allow them to emit certain pollutants into the air at certain levels. Each credit is a certain cost, of which the money goes into the development of cleaner technologies that can reduce the level of pollution overall over time. Some environmental groups have taken this idea and adapted it to the individual level.

Many groups allow you to calculate through their websites the amount of carbon pollution that you emit as an individual through your daily activity and generate the equivalent cost of a “carbon credit.” This cost equates to the amount of money that would need to be spent to remove that amount of pollution from the environment. The money, as with corporate carbon credit costs, goes towards the creation and development of pollution reducing technology and alternative energy for society as a whole.