The concept of carbon neutrality has been around for a few years
now. In fact, it was the word of the year for the New Oxford English Dictionary
in 2006. However, both the theoretical definition and practical application of
the idea remain a bit cloudy, even among the eco-friendly community. Not only
does carbon neutral mean different things to different environmentalists –
leading to confusion when it’s presented to the greater public – but people are
also unclear as to what we can do about it.
To help people better understand what this term means and why it’s
important to the future of our planet, this article will achieve the following
objectives:
After scouring dictionaries and the websites of government agencies and environmental nonprofits, we’ve crafted what we think is a pretty good definition. For something to be considered “carbon neutral,” it must achieve the following:
“The amount of
carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere is balanced or offset by an equal amount
of CO2 removed from the atmosphere.”
That aforementioned confusion arises when you start to account for
where, when, and how both the emissions and those carbon offsets are created. You
also have to consider the other harmful greenhouse gases that are generated
besides carbon dioxide. Additionally, it’s essential you factor in whether such
activities are mere corporate social responsibility measures or if they’re in
direct accordance with aggressive proposals designed to actually curb climate
change.
Put another way, to be truly carbon neutral, you must first take
active steps to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
you release into the world. You then must match the emissions you do create
with activities that offset them.
There are a lot of terms floating around eco-friendly circles that
can muddy the waters. Although it’s important you understand these terms, they
can get in the way of taking specific actions to improve the environment. Let’s
go over these additional concepts closely related to carbon neutral so you can
sound like a knowledgeable friend of the planet.
Climate neutrality means basically the same thing as “carbon
neutral.” The use of “climate” removes the focus solely from carbon dioxide to
include anything and everything that could harm the environment and/or contribute
to climate change.
The next level of activism! Climate positivity occurs when you’ve
reduced and offset more greenhouse gas emissions than you created. As in,
you’ve brought the amount of clean air into the positive side of the
atmospheric balance sheet.
The same basic concept as “climate positive,” this term focuses
specifically on carbon dioxide. As in, the amount of carbon dioxide emissions
you created is less than the amount of carbon dioxide you removed from the
atmosphere. You’ve brought the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into
the negative side of the atmospheric balance sheet.
Carbon positive is considered more of a marketing term. It
clumsily combines the ideas inherent in “climate positive” and “carbon
negative” to represent something akin to “we’re doing something positive to
reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.”
In our opinion, “carbon neutral” works just fine. It’s been around
for the longest amount of time, which means more people are more familiar with
the term. We’re also fans of “climate neutral / positive,” as this concept
actively encourages you to consider the holistic impact of our actions, not
just what happens with carbon dioxide.
What matters is that we’re clear and consistent with the
terminology we use so we can effectively communicate with others the importance
of taking bold steps to slow down climate change.
We’ve talked about your carbon footprint before. Much like
carbon neutral, it’s a slightly confusing term that requires some education to
understand what it means and the impact it has on the environment. In essence,
it’s the collective impact your actions make on the environment, ranging from how
much you drive to how far the stuff you buy has to travel before it arrives at
your house and beyond.
Hence, your carbon footprint is a direct reflection upon your
relative carbon neutrality. If you have a high carbon footprint, it will be
harder for you to become carbon neutral, as you’ll have to offset or remove
lots of carbon dioxide to balance everything out.
Thus, it’s imperative that you locate ways you can lower your
carbon footprint. We recommend starting with the following when possible:
In fact, many climate experts contend that creating a carbon-neutral planet must go far beyond mere carbon offsetting of our current emissions levels. We must actively create fewer emissions and bring them to zero as quickly as possible.
If you really want to become carbon neutral in your home,
neighborhood, and business, it definitely starts with the tips to reduce your
carbon footprint we mentioned earlier. From there, we recommend the following
course of action:
As we’ve discussed before with carbon offsets, there isn’t a
“silver bullet” or single solution to the problem of global warming and climate
change. It requires a multi-pronged effort that involves everyone, and it won’t
happen overnight.
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