Claim– Does Carbon Offset fully compensate for carbon emissions?
A few years ago @myclimate voiced an assertion on his YouTube page with a 1:49 seconds power point on how carbon offsetting fully compensates for carbon emissions. He went ahead to detail how this works.
This post has since gathered 1700 views; 36 likes; 3 comments; 12 shares
https://youtu.be/Sl4wqQ04yec?si=01sxptTHyHFSJCEn
NatureNews, Africa’s foremost news publications on climate change, which is dedicated to providing accurate insights to stop the spread of fake news particularly among users of social media, subjected the claim to fact checking.
Findings: Using the Google search tool in conducting this research, NatureFact, the fact checking unit of NatureNews, accessed a few papers and studies.
A thorough fact-checking investigation has revealed that this assertion is not in it’s entirety factual.
What is Carbon Offsetting?
This is an action or process of compensating for carbon dioxide emissions arising from industrial or other human activity, by participating in schemes designed to make equivalent reductions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Simply put, carbon offsetting is a method to counterbalance the harmful emissions, like carbon dioxide, that we release into the atmosphere. Here’s a simplified explanation:
- Activities such as flying, driving, and using energy emit harmful gases into the air.
- These emissions contribute to climate change and environmental damage.
- Carbon offsetting involves funding projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere, such as:
– Planting trees to absorb CO2
– Creating renewable energy sources (e.g., wind or solar farms)
– Enhancing energy efficiency in buildings
- These projects cut emissions by an amount equal to what we emitted.
- By investing in these projects, we “offset” our emissions, neutralizing the damage we caused.
Think of it as a seesaw: our emissions raise one side, but the reductions from supported projects lower the other side, balancing the impact. It’s a way to take responsibility for our environmental footprint and help protect the planet.
The question about Carbon offsetting has always been: “So, if we can offset carbon emissions, do we just go ahead and do whatever we please as long as we can balance it by offsetting it?”, “why not reduce our carbon footprint instead of trying to press the re-set ?”, “is carbon offsetting not a solution based measure? Shouldn’t we be more concerned with a preventive/mitigative measure?”
Hence why @bloomberg demystifies Carbon offsetting.
https://youtu.be/ma-16mYsilA?si=YaOgzgFTNNGCM6Bv
Despite allegedly offsetting carbon, Earth is still battling drastic climate change related activities- Heat waves, flooding, earthquakes, melting of ice in polar regions, extinction of parts of biodiversity due to human activity, uneven rainfall, e.t.c which goes to confirm that carbon offsetting isn’t working as well as we are lead to believe.
@DWPlanetA gives a deeper insight on Carbon offsetting and how it isn’t a restart button for our carbon footprint.
https://youtu.be/61SWIYwCaSE?si=aO8_vmTnpSagx5IG
@wendover lends voice to this fact
https://youtu.be/AW3gaelBypY?si=Yi2Qi5-d-3oylr5A
https://youtu.be/fcHEqcKSzs8?si=82gO391abm7kMCOe
Carbon offsetting is a good method to reduce our carbon footprint but it has not done a lot of work in reducing carbon emissions. It only strives to balance and has to be heavily monitored and regulated to actually make a notable difference.
Verdict– False. Carbon offsetting doesn’t make up or compensate for carbon emissions.
