Carbon Offsets and Carbon Neutrality with Ocean Arks International

Everyone pollutes. It’s a byproduct of the way we live. A mid sized car emits on average four tons of carbon dioxide each year. An SUV on average gives off ten tons. The average American is responsible for over twenty tons. Burning fossil fuels is the largest source of emissions. Half of our electricity comes from coal-fired power plants, which are by far the dirtiest sources of energy.

It has been estimated by the United Kingdom Treasury that, if unchecked, each ton of carbon dioxide will cause eighty-five dollars worth of damage to the world economy. The United States alone emits close 2,000 million metric tons of carbon equivalent each year. Worldwide emissions are probably about five times that figure. It does not take much imagination to grasp the economic impact of carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases on our future. It is impossible to price the loss of species and the misery associated with changes in the climate and the atmosphere.

At Ocean Arks we have been asking what we can do to help stem the tide and reverse the problem. Is it possible for us to link atmospheric carbon removal or sequestration with the restoration of degraded environments?  Is it possible by building soils, planting trees, growing meadows and prairies, and cleaning up polluted water while at the same time, creating carbon sinks that will become the foundations for new natural resource based economies? I believe so

Several years ago we started a small carbon sequestration project on a deforested hillside in Guanacaste Province in Costa Rica. At that time we invited Ocean Arks members and supporters in Canada and the United States to consider supporting for project to offset their personal and family emissions. Under the direction of William Turley and Angelina Sanchez we planted a small agro-forest with a mixture of trees including some that are becoming rare in Costa Rica and others that produce fruit, nuts and valuable fiber materials. We planted still others the nuts or fruits of which can be converted to diesel fuel.

For some reason the project did not attract much support. Possibly computing their annual emissions was discouraging or perhaps we failed to convey the urgency of the work. Nonetheless we kept planting trees and building soils, but without much support the pace was slow.

It is also possible that we did not fully connect carbon sequestration in trees and soils with the larger challenge of reversing climate change. It could also have been that the Central American location, while optimal for sequestering carbon, was remote from the daily lives of our members, their families and friends.

Perhaps if we choose to heal environments through carbon sinks closer to home then perhaps our readers members would be more inclined to support our work by making their daily lives more carbon neutral? That is the question we are pondering now.

We are now considering expanding our carbon sequestration projects to the devastated coal mining lands of Appalachia. Ocean Arks director Samir Doshi has a research project there in Appalachia through which he uses warm season perennial grasses with legumes along with biochar to create new soils that store carbon. The question we are asking ourselves is, should this work be expanded and added to our carbon neutral program. On another front I am involved in a project at the University of Vermont to grow micro-algae for conversion to fuels such as bio-diesel. To speed up their growth we add atmospheric carbon dioxide to the water. On a larger scale we could use shallow ponds to convert carbon dioxide to algae that in turn could fertilize as well as irrigate nearby crops, fields, and orchards which would again become the carbon sinks.

I would like the advice of Ocean Arks supporters and Annals readers as to how we can reach a larger audience for this critical work as well as to decide the regions where we should focus it.  We equally need your our financial support.

Carbon sequestration is determined environment and space determined. A new prairie for example can store 0.4 to 0.7 tons of carbon (880-1540 lbs) per acre each year. A mature prairie can sequester 1.2-1.8 tons over the same period. A newly planted forest can remove 0.8- 4 tons per year and an old one puts down 1.8 to 3.1 tons. We do not yet know how much CO2 the algae based systems remove from the atmosphere but we hope to gather this information in the year ahead.

Our lifestyles reflect how much carbon we need to sequester. I have created three categories to help you think about carbon neutrality.

They are:

1: Low Flyer, 2: Energy Conscious and 3: Jet Setter. A Low Flyer who probably walks or rides a bike to work and lives close by has a carbon footprint in the range of five tons and would be carbon neutral at $40 a ton for an annual payment of $200.

An Energy Conscious person commutes, travels a bit and pays attention to energy consumption might produce 10 tons per year and to be carbon neutral you would pay $400 a year.

A Jet Setter travels quite a bit and perhaps owns fuel-consuming toys, like a recreational motor boat, might consumption might be 25 tons a year. Offsetting this would cost  $1,000 a year.

 Many of us may decide that we can only afford to achieve becoming half-way to carbon neutral. In this case, based on your life style you could select a contribution of half the numbers above. We do hope you will decide to become involved.

For our part we will continue to report on our progress in Annals and on our website. We want to make such projects available for you to visit. We also want a to further explore not only how to sequester carbon, but also ways to conserve energy and substitute polluting practices for more benign ones.

Please join us and support this effort.