Penguins inspire unique pledge to environment

Seattle's Brad Mewhort has taken the concept of carbon offsets to its ultimate conclusion. He's donated $3,700 to settle the debt for the carbon dioxide emissions from his entire life so far.

What would make someone do such a thing?

Penguins.

Mewhort, a 33-year-old software manager, is mad for the tuxedoed waddlers. It was his love of penguins that landed him on a Russian ship that sailed to Antarctica last January. There he came face to beak with Gentoo, Adelie and chinstrap penguins by the hundreds.

"They're magnificent and they're comical and they're so majestic the way they wander around," he said. "Then they bump into each other."

Already environmentally concerned, the encounter inspired an e-mail from Mewhort to Carbonfund, a nonprofit that sells carbon offsets by investing in renewable power, energy conservation and reforestation projects -- all of which reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. You rack up one ton of pollution flying to Los Angeles and back, say, and you pay them to save the equivalent of a ton by paying for solar panel installations somewhere.

"I swore to those penguins that I would do what I can to save them, to do my part to prevent climate change," Mewhort said in the e-mail.

Last year consumers, governments and others voluntarily paid Carbonfund and other vendors $331 million to offset at least 65 million tons of greenhouse gases. That's triple the value of the market in 2006, according to Ecosystem Marketplace and New Carbon Finance, two businesses analyzing the carbon markets.

The explosive growth has inspired the sector's Wild West reputation and vocal criticism. The industry -- which launched around 2000 with the approval of the international Kyoto climate agreement -- remains poorly regulated, except through voluntary certification programs.

Critics worry that businesses could resell the same carbon-reducing good deeds over and over again. Or a coal plant, for example, could sell offsets for installing emissions-cutting devices when it was a project they had money for anyhow.

There's debate over how much credit is due -- how many tons of carbon dioxide will a restored forest absorb, and what happens to the offsets if it's cut down?

How do you verify that the wind turbines in India you helped pay for were ever built?

"There's this really, really rapid growth in this market which makes it really hard to say how solid the market is," said Bill Burtis, spokesman for Clean Air-Cool Planet, a national climate-focused nonprofit. "Simultaneous with this growth, there's a lot more scrutiny."

In January, the Federal Trade Commission convened a discussion of the offset market and the claims being made by vendors. Jennifer Martin, deputy director for the Center for Resource Solutions, a carbon-market watchdog group, was a panelist.

"We want to make sure there is complete transparency and disclosure," she said in an interview Friday. "The key thing in this market is that you have independent verification and certification."

In February, the center released certification standards and has started endorsing trustworthy vendors.

Mewhort did some homework before choosing Carbonfund, which he began using a couple of years ago to offset air travel. He specifically pays into their renewable energy projects, a cause he finds worthy and verifiable.

Then he came up with best estimates for his three-plus decades of greenhouse gas emissions -- from growing up in Kamloops, B.C., and riding in the family van to living today in an apartment only blocks from work. The grand total: 672 tons. He's still paying as new emissions accrue.

Offsets will continue getting mixed reviews. Even those in the industry agree that they're an option of last resort once emission sources are cut as much as possible. That is to say, buying a truckload of offsets doesn't justify driving a monster SUV or cranking the AC with your home windows open and thinking you're saving the planet.

Without drastic greenhouse gas cuts -- about 80 percent by 2050 -- experts predict dire amounts of sea level rise, melting glaciers, droughts, wildfires, extinctions and other global woes.

"I don't think (buying offsets) is a bad thing to do, but people shouldn't be under the illusion if we all did that, we'd solve the problem," said K.C. Golden, policy director for Olympia-based Climate Solutions, an environmental group.

The answer includes limits on industrial emissions, stronger pollution restrictions for vehicles, better public transportation and protection of native forests.

Mewhort understands this.

Dressed in a red pinstripe shirt and wearing black wire-rimmed glasses, his blond hair slightly mussed, he recently recounted the steps he's taken to reduce his impact: selling his car eight months ago, walking to work and forgoing resource-hungry meat and dairy products.

In his office overlooking Puget Sound, the surroundings are computer-desk-whiteboard-spare, save a calendar featuring -- you guessed it -- a huddle of penguins.

Friends mostly understand his passion for the environment, he said, though a few find his level of commitment a little "mind-boggling." No one has harassed him for spending so much to help the planet and his polar pals.

"Offsets aren't going to save the world, it's not the total answer," he said.

"Obviously it's better to reduce your (carbon) footprint, but living in the society we do and having the occupations we have, it's hard to make dramatic changes really quickly.

"Carbon offsets are a fairly good compromise."

CONFIRMING CARBON OFFSETS

The world of carbon offsets -- paying for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere to compensate for your pollution -- is largely unregulated except through voluntary programs. Consumers can research offset vendors to find one they believe is helping the climate. Prices vary, averaging about $6 a ton last year, but range from $2 to $300 a ton.

Questions and points to consider:

Are the offset projects independently verified and certified, and by whom?

Would the project be happening if it wasn't funded through offsets?

Do you know the offsets are not being sold to multiple buyers?

Are the benefits of the offsets happening now, or in the future?

Some experts advise against reforestation projects because it's hard to know how much carbon dioxide growing trees absorb, how many will survive and how long they'll be left before logging. Forest preservation -- sparing old trees from chain saws -- is a safer bet.

Additional resources:

Clean Air-Cool Planet guide for buying offsets: goto.seattlepi.com/r1426.

Offset sellers endorsed by Center for Resource Solutions' Green-e program: goto.seattlepi.com/r1427.

Certifiers endorsed by CRS: goto.seattlepi.com/r1428.