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Message: Carbon Payback’s A Bitch - Or Is it? Image from http://www.futureenergy.org We all know it. Our Western lifestyles are slowing choking the planet. But the problem is so vast and complex that we as consumers often have no idea of how to make things better. Recycling helps. Taking public transit works too. Sooner or later, though, we all seem to get on a plane to go one place or the other. The Seattle Post Intelligencer ran a story yesterday on what consumers can do to reduce their carbon footprint while waiting for new green technologies to come online. The answer? Buy back your pollution. Buying carbon offsets sounds suspiciously like something futures traders indulge in, and indeed it is, but it may just be the way consumers can lessen their impact on the environment. Corporations of all types are getting involved. For example, Seattle non-profit NetGreen has joined with local real estate companies to offer “carbon-neutral mortgages,” billed as the first of their kind in the country. For $180 per year, homeowners can offset the pollutants generated from heating the house. Recently, Bellevue-based Expedia.com began allowing consumers to “fly green” at $6 for a short flight to $30 for international travel. What does it cost to offset an entire life’s worth of CO2? $4,000. Priceless. www.corporateknightsforum.com