Offset 350 pounds of carbon through your LiveJournal

[pegkerr]

Here's my DWS project for the day: I found out about this on Twitter (specifically from TwilightEarth retweeting ParkHowell): Check out 350.brigherplanet.com/. Just place their badge on your blog (see below and on my profile page), let Brighter Planet know, and they’ll offset 350 pounds of carbon in your name. Why 350 pounds? According to the website, 350 is the parts per million of Co2 in the atmosphere that we must aim for if we want to keep the planet relatively safe. Brighter Planet’s 350 Challenge: Get 350 bloggers to post the badge, and each receives a 350 carbon offset in their name. It’s been hugely successful with more than 1,600 badging-up.

The program was inspired by Bill McKibben’s awareness campaign that you can learn about at 350.org. You can also hear his podcast on Brighter Planet’s blog.

Where does Brighter Planet’s money go on your behalf?

They invest in a variety of renewable energy projects that might otherwise go unfunded and/or unnoticed. You can learn about their carbon offset policy and meet the people on their project selection committee.

So it's easy: slap the badge on your Livejournal. Let the Brighter Planet people know. And you’ll offset 350 pounds of gunk in the air. It’s just another small and easy thing we can all do to help brighten the planet and curb global warming. Nice!

Comments

[matt_doyle]

May I link to your explanation?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Sure.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

Done--thanks for letting me know!

[brigidsblest.livejournal.com]

Done! It's on my profile page.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I briefly visited the Brighter Planet site and I still don't understand. How does putting a link on your LJ generate money for the cause? Yeah, yeah, "we donate the 350 pounds of offsets for every participant in the 350 Challenge." But where does this money come from?

Much as I like to believe that I can save the world (FREE) by clicking on links, I'm having a hard time seeing how it works. The Hunger link takes you to a site full of paid advertising, so there's a plausible connection between clicking and magically generating "cups of food." But this one I just don't get.

[cantkeepsilent.livejournal.com]

By their own calculation, 350 pounds of carbon has a "retail" value of $2.45. I don't know what their markup is (and they aren't listed with Charity Navigator), but presumably it costs them less to do it themselves. It only takes one deep-pocketed person to cover these donations, and for all I know they have a way to do something "in someone's name" and still get the charitable tax write-off.

And they probably hope that they'll make it back if a fraction of the participants go further into the website to buy a year of car or vacation offsets from them, and they've got an email list to do future appeals.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"And they probably hope that they'll make it back if a fraction of the participants go further into the website to buy a year of car or vacation offsets from them"

That's what I missed. I didn't penetrate far enough into the website to figure out if they were actually selling any services or products.

[pameladean]

Done; thanks. It may take me a few days to get a post up, but I'll do that too.

P.