I'm always dubious about using an airline's recommended provider. Carbon offsetting can be a bit of a scam sometime. Is there a site which rates them?

I'm yet to be convinced that offsetting is at all helpful. Isn't it just a way for the rich to buy their way out of guilt?

Yeah but there must be some way, like if for every mile you fly you spend 5 minutes at night without heat or light....so wrap up warm and go to bed at dusk a few nights every month.

Carbon off setting is rubbish. check cheatneutral
http://www.cheatneutral.com/

Well - the views expressed are reasonable - but.....sometimes activites which emit CO2 have to be done. Surely we should be aiming to be neutral, and that in itself would suggest we need to take action to off-set certain necessary activities; like flying long haul for business; maybe we can find real off-setting programmes that are not rip offs and do make a difference - thats gotta be a good thing - not just for guilt, but for the planet?

Without a doubt, the idea that there is nothing you can do about the carbon that is emitted is not a reality, reducing what you do and then finding the right offsetting partner to work with, this all contributes to the move in the right direction. But in reality we jump on planes too easily and government taxes on aviation fuel is not high enough by half.

There are some standards you can use to judge carbon offsets. <a href="http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/carbon_offsets.asp">This article</a> talks about VCS, Green-e, and The Gold Standard.

All three specifically exclude tree planting because that does not take carbon out of circulation, it just traps it in a tree for the life of the tree.

I have to say that the current reality of investing in alternative energies without a global commitment for reduction in consumption, just frees up fossil fuels for more business as usual.

Best solution: Don't take the flight and invest all the flight money, your pension and change in the piggy bank in some sort of sustainable enterprise, be it for energy production or political change.

Offsetting is just a guilt trip .. it's a no brainer, we just must use less carbon based sources while staying focussed on getting more from what we do use (i.e. a lot more efficiency) And i thoroughly endorse viewing www.cheatneutral.com and networking it to the sceptics as a very valid and easily digested argument !!

check out www.atmosfair.de
If you're gonna go with an offset company these guys are probably the best

Bee 2, you asked if there were any exceptional Carbon Offset schemes out there, well as we know Carbon Offsetting is a tricky business & many aspects of it worry me. For a more holistic approach check out http://www.ozgreen.org.au/news.php & see link on offsetting.We are not accredited but we work by purchasing the tress from locals,employing locals to do the work & we plant trees that produce food.Great!

This is geographically specific, but if you need to get from Dublin - London, consider using ferry + train. If you travel mid-week, there's a direct train from Hollyhead to London that takes 4 hours. Door to door for ferry + train is 7-8 hours, versus 4-5 hours for the plane. That's not a huge difference. Also at 88 EUR the ferry and train is prob. half the average plane flight cost.

I just thought I'd plant a tree, and it would easily compensate for the emissions of one flight during its lifetime.

Yes! However if they were to carry only passengers they would be even more efficient. For example here is a comparission

London to Tangier by plane 5 hours,435Kg/CO2
48 hours by Eurostar, sleeper trains & ferry, 63 Kg/CO2