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Airlines Offer Green, Conscience-Soothing Carbon Offset Packages

by Lee Bains on September 30, 2009 at 05:02 PM

The business of guilt removal has been around for a lot longer than Sally Struthers's quavering-voiced pleas for the children and Jim Bakker's patronizing smiles. Now, the San Francisco International Airport has joined those ranks with its three brand new Climate Passport kiosks. In exchange for good old U.S. greenbacks, these ATMs of environmental righteousness grant a passenger-patron a certificate indicating that his or her money has been earmarked for preservation efforts at the Garcia River forest in Mendocino County, California.

The price of an eco-indulgence depends on the length of a passenger's trip; to offset the contaminants of a shuttle flight costs a few bucks, ranging to $70 for an international voyage. Ari Zeskoe, the first passenger to thus purchase self-satisfaction, wasn't entirely, well, satisfied. Noting that his certificate did mention the Garcia River efforts, he told NPR, "I suppose that's what it goes to, but I'm not entirely sure."

We're as green-minded as the next blog, believe us. But we have a slight problem with fuel-guzzling, pollutant-producing airports turning around to their customers and saying, "Hey, all this fuel consumption and pollution are your fault, you realize, right? So, give us some money and we'll fix it... or something." That would be kind of like Switched saying to our faithful readers, "Hey, you're putting print publications out of business. So donate to this fund, out of which we will send some unspecified portion to laid-off newspaper reporters and their families." Wait. Hold on. We might be on to something... [From: 3Degrees and NPR.org]

Tags: airport, carbon, carbon footprint, CarbonFootprint, green, top

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