Are Carbon Offsets for Travelers a Scam?

Here’s my take on whether you should pay for them

Airplane soaring over Koh Samui island, Thailand, showcasing a vibrant tropical landscape in daylight.

SCAM OR NOT?
Let’s define “scam.” I like the Cambridge Dictionary’s “a dishonest plan for making money or getting an advantage, especially one that involves tricking people.”

According to this definition, I would say that in some cases, yes, travel companies ARE scamming customers with claims about carbon offsets.

And frankly, I don’t think this is because those companies are comparatively awful. It’s because mainstream culture has normalized dishonest business practices to the point that scams are now commonplace. The ubiquity of counterfeit olive oil and honey on store shelves is a disheartening example. But there is an even bigger issue with environmental concerns specifically because we are in the midst of mass delusional denial at the population level.

Anyway, carbon offsets are not always as great as they are made out to be because companies may exaggerate their benefits. In some cases it has been demonstrated that offsets were measurably less effective than claimed.

If you want to read a little more, here’s a short explainer from MIT on the “difficulty of verifying [the] environmental benefits” of carbon offsets and an article from WIRED.

Bottom line, if a travel company is presenting their use of carbon offsets as a way to reach “net zero” emissions, you really should not take that claim at face value. And if you are buying carbon offsets directly, be skeptical.

YOU SHOULD STILL CONSIDER OFFSETS
Even though offsets can be a dishonest way of tricking customers into buying something, you SHOULD STILL CONSIDER paying for carbon offsets.

PROS:

  • Doing something is better than nothing (even if the benefits of offsets are exaggerated, they are still having some positive effect).
  • Choosing companies that use offsets above those that do not will encourage more companies to do “something rather than nothing.”
  • Careful research might help you determine how trustworthy a company’s claims really are (it’s not always a total mystery).

CONS

  • Oftentimes you really won’t be able to access information that would indicate whether you can trust a company’s claims or not (especially when it comes to tour companies who will only tell you that they are buying offsets without specifying what companies they are buying from).
  • Choosing companies that use offsets will signal to them that what they are doing is “good enough,” whereas boycotting them until they improve more in other ways could send a stronger message.
  • Using carbon offsets might perpetuate your own or others’ delusional fantasy that environmental concerns can be adequately addressed without drastic reductions in resource consumption.

The safest strategy would be, when you have the choice:

  • Reduce your carbon emissions / resource consumption as a primary measure rather than relying on offsets.
  • If other factors are similar, choose a company that does use offsets over a company that doesn’t use offsets.
  • Choose a company that provides a better supported explanation of the efficacy of their offsets versus one with a less well-supported explanation.
  • DO NOT regard offsets as a way of “canceling out” or justifying the environmental harm of your consumer choices.
  • DO consider carbon offsets as potentially a positive investment for the environment.

And as always, you can schedule a free call with me to explore your options and strategize together.

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