Carbon Offsets – relieve your guilt

Now don’t get me wrong on this one. I have a water tank and I look after my energy consumption. It seems that Carbon Offsets have become the trendy thing to do. Don’t worry about living a ridiculous consumer lifestyle. Give money to a company with the word green in their name and they will plant a tree for you.

Want to help the planet ? Turn a light off you don’t need. Install a dimmer switch or replace those 12v downlights with a 240v version. Get a water tank for the garden. Investigate grey water recycling. Get a worm farm and explain to your kids how it works and show them how to recycle, reuse and reduce.

Don’t give money to people to plant trees for you. Do it yourself. “OK so that easy for you to say”, you say. “I live in an apartment block with no garden etc”. Look for other options. Plastic shopping bags - no thanks, I have my own reusable ones. We can all do our part. Look at what’s around you and how you live. It’s all about the three Rs – Reduce, Recycle and Reuse. It doesn’t need to be a big change. Enough small changes is a good start. I am not a raging Greeny in any way, but I would like my kids to grow up in a world that’s not completely screwed. Is it too late for that? I hope not. It’s never too late to start doing better.