Liberia's new future carbon offsetting

Without wanting to evangelise, if you do fancy jetting off to warmer waters, consider spending a fraction more and offsetting your carbon footprint.

Is there really a problem?

The sceptics rage about carbon offsetting, the great climate change swindle, and all manner of facts and figures are banded around. But before you decide to pack your Creatures bag, break out the passport, and generally get the surf show on the road, just think about one tiny little thing. It doesn't actually cost much to offset your trip, so why not just do it anyway? Perhaps before you read on, you should watch this film. It might just be enough to swing your opinion our way.

What's the worst that could happen?

Does offsetting really do anything?

So, we've established that there is a potentially huge problem with our climate. But we aren't suggesting you don't go. Reducing your carbon footprint is the best way to help tackle climate change. But you want to go, you've worked hard to get the cash, so why not? Don't have a moral dilemma, just spend a fraction more to help offset the huge amount of fuel a modern jet airliner uses. And it is a frightening amount. Check out the figures below for a comparison.

Trip	CO2 in tonnes
Fly to Robertsport, Liberia	1.3
Drive a 2 litre diesel car for one year	2.4

Don't take our word for it, check your car's emissions here and your flight's emissions here.

So in one flight, you've chucked out just over half the carbon dioxide, as you would in a year's motoring! That's mad.

How much does it cost?

You would be amazed at how simple it is to fix this problem, assuming airliner manufacturers don't come up with a solution very soon. With the Carbon Neutral Company, between £9.75 and £18.20. When you think how much the flight set you back, it seems an impossibly small amount. Less than most travel insurance policies. And yet it's true, that's all it costs.

So, in order to have peace of mind, all you need to part with is somewhere between ten and twenty quid. And when you have the option of helping carbon reducing programmes in China or clean energy projects in India, your surfing holiday suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.

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