Carbon Neutral

I got an email from Working Assets' Act for Change mailing list with links to a site where you can donate money to carbonfund.org to offset carbon emissions. It's a cool holiday gift for the eco-conscious people on your list (or the non-ecoconscious people to whom you want to make a point). In addition to being a good cause, I am smitten with the Santa illustration they included in the email. ;-) Here's their pitch:

Donate to Carbonfund.org and you can offset a friend's carbon emissions for a whole year. For a tax-deductible donation of just $55 you'll neutralize all your friend's global-warming gases -- that includes CO2 emitted by driving, flying, and heating or cooling a home.

Your contribution will go directly to certified C02-reducing projects supported by Carbonfund: reforestation, renewable energy and energy efficiency campaigns....

P.S. When you contribute $99 or more to Carbonfund.org, Working Assets will offset an additional 5 tons of CO2, which is the equivalent of taking a mid-sized car off the road for a year. It's like a gift within a gift, and it's free!

There is another site called climatecrisis.net where you can make a similar donation (I don't know if one site is better than the other). Climate Crisis also has a carbon calculator.