The author of today's post, Sheryl Canter, is an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

Carbon offsets are a good idea that, unfortunately, without guidelines, can be implemented badly. The basic idea is to reduce and then offset the carbon emissions produced by your lifestyle by funding projects that reduce carbon emissions elsewhere. This works because, from a global warming perspective, it doesn't matter where the carbon comes from. A reduction anywhere reduces the global total.

But how do you know a given offset is truly reducing carbon emissions?

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ignoratio elenchi n.
A logical fallacy of presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but has nothing to do with the proposition it purports to prove. Also known as "irrelevant conclusion". [Lat. ignorance of refutation.]

Al Gore's response to charges of being an energy hog was that he buys carbon offsets to neutralize his carbon emissions. This sounded bogus to a lot of people, but in fact it's not.

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