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Ask HN: Personal carbon offsets

6 points by GlenTheMachine ↗ HN
I’m interested in attempting a carbon-neutral life. I’ve noticed that Enterprise car rental has an option to buy a carbon offset for a car rental for a surprisingly small fee (less than $2 a day). And one can also purchase carbon offsets for flights. But I don’t know how reputable or effective these are. Obviously it’s best to emit less - use less electricity, use public transit, etc. but that’s not a complete solution. What’s the best, most cost-effective way to offset your own carbon emissions?

6 comments

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offsetr
Throw a chunk of steel/iron into the sea
gus_massa
Is this a joke or the idea is that the iron will be like a fertilizer to algae that will sequester more carbon and die and sink to the bottom?

(Is it posible to use raw mineral ore? The production of steel/iron use a lot of carbon.)

offsetr
No its not a joke there's multiple processes one of which is the algae fertilizer. It's a very efficient carbon sink.
gus_massa
It looks like a joke, so it was downvoted when I saw it. It remembered some project to add iron to the sea, so I hoped that it was a serious proposal.

Try to avoid onliners, it's very easy to misinterpret them. (Bonus points for a link to Wikipedia or somewhere with more details.)

gus_massa
Can you buy your carbon offset wholesale? How much would it cost to buy your estimated carbon footprint of a year?

Also, air conditioner and heater consume a lot. Try to get use to a wider temperature range (like 60°F to 80°F), it's not so bad.