"Sadly many well intentioned people are being misled when purchasing carbon offsets to mitigate their climate guilt for holiday travel," said Wilderness Committee Healthy Communities Campaigner Ben West.

"The problem is that these so-called offsets can actually make things worse while making people feel like they have done their part for the environment," said West.
 
Christmas is the busiest time of year for travel in Canada, and airlines are promoting carbon offsets to those concerned about reducing their personal greenhouse gas emissions. The Wilderness Committee sees these offsets as fundamentally flawed, and is advising holiday travelers to instead donate to environmental groups working on fighting climate change in meaningful ways.

The Wilderness Committee has been critical of carbon offsetting schemes due to the impact on forest protection and the emphasis on bio-energy. Bio-energy has been a hot topic for climate scientists and activists of late, and concerns have been raised that bio-energy policies can actually increase green house gases emissions.

"We need to both protect forests and reduce emissions if we are going to stop runaway climate change. If we continue down the road of carbon offsets we won't be able to protect an ancient rain forest without offset money coming from individuals and the big oil and coal companies and that is just wrong," said West. "What's worse is that most people probably don't know that the majority of money raised from carbon offsets in BC is actually going to bio-fuels and 'fuel switching' which will in fact mean increased deforestation and increased emissions from burning trees and other biomass," said West.

Air Canada, WestJet and other flight providers offer carbon offsets to customers. They sell offsets at prices ranging from 14 to 30 dollars a tonne. A return flight from Vancouver to Toronto is estimated to have an individual carbon footprint of approximately 1.3 tonnes of greenhouse gases. The Wilderness Committee suggests that donating to groups working on reducing emissions and providing realistic solutions would be a better way to spend money than carbon offsets if you want to fight climate change.

"Not only does a membership in an environmental group make a good green gift it can also go a long way towards real changes to help ensure Canada plays a responsible role in the world," said West. "Canada has been a pariah on the world stage in climate negotiations because of our fossil fuel exports. We need to fight the expansion of the tar sands as well as coal mining -- offsets don't do this. These kind of schemes in fact provide opportunities for these industries to simply pay to pollute," said West.

"Climate change is happening now and is having really serious impacts on people's lives, and we need to do a lot more to stop it," said West. "Ideally people could avoid flying, but we need to work towards systemic change like investing in high speed rail  and expanded public transit so folks have alternative ways to travel, at least within Canada. Environmental groups need your support to make that a reality," said West.