I work in the carbon market myself and feel very guilty every time that long flight approaches. However, my overall carbon footprint is very small as I know what to look out for. I don’t have a car, my house is hooked to green power and I do every little thing possible to save emissions throughout the day - switching appliances off at the powerpoint, taking only very short warm showers, and of course I’ve changed all my light bulbs.

I use the Carbon Reduction Institute www.noco2.com.au to offset my flight to Germany; mostly because they don’t use trees and their calculators is one of the most comprehensive out there. 100% of the offsetting money they collect from me is spent on renewables and energy efficiency projects.

I use the carbon neutral scheme by “Men of the Trees” in Western Australia to off set/ green wash my carbon guilt for these trips. I like that particular scheme as they plant trees in areas that require rehabilitation, especially in salt affected areas of Western and South Australia.

Dead trees still hold carbon until they are burnt. Big dead trees provide habitat for native animals and birds. And if big dead trees die and fall into a muddy salt lake into an anaeroic environment, they still hold the carbon in them until future generations dig them up as coal. Dead trees are useful as long as they aren’t burnt inefficiently.

Part of the reason for the trips is designing and building the straw bale, photovoltaic powered, rain water tanked, composted toileted home I plan to live in. Unfortunately I need to work in Queensland to finance that goal.

There are different types of offsets - not all are created equal. Tree-based offsets definitely play a role as a form of “sequestration” (effectively, moving CO2 from the atmosphere), but their not our preferred option for offsetting.

I posted something recently to the Future Blog with more on the topic:
http://futuremakers.com.au/carbon-offsets/