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I trusted a carbon offset program until I saw where the money really goes.

Turns out most of it just pays for office costs, not real tree planting.
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4 Comments
kevin974
kevin9741mo ago
Feel exactly the same way, and @ward.kim nailed it. It is so frustrating to learn your good faith payment just feeds the machine instead of fixing the problem. That guilt you pay to clear gets turned into overhead for a company, not real change. It makes the whole idea of buying offsets feel pretty broken. You want to help, but the system isn't set up to actually do the thing it promises.
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ward.kim
ward.kim1mo ago
Well that's depressing. So we're basically just paying for someone's fancy office coffee and printer paper. I love how my guilt for driving gets turned into a new desk chair for some manager. Really makes you feel like you're helping the planet, doesn't it? Nothing says "green" like funding paperwork about planting trees instead of actually planting them. What a great way to feel better and do nothing at all.
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ward.olivia
Exactly! Paperwork saves the world.
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samflores
samflores18d ago
Funding paperwork about planting trees" misses that good projects need real oversight. My cousin works in forestry and says the paperwork is how they track survival rates and stop fraud. It's not perfect, but the admin is what makes sure trees actually get planted and live.
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