I am fully with you on the importance of acting now on any grounds we can, politically, financially, with business, etcetc, don't get me wrong.
In what way will your business differ from other carbon offset businesses? I google, and I find terrapass. I donate to cotap on a monthly basis. All of these are very accessible, or am I missing something?
you are probably someone who cares about this stuff roughly a million times more than the average member of the public, but for most people, the actions you specified aren't on the radar.
nobody i've spoken to has even known about offsets, nevermind what they do or how to access the markets as an individual. people do vaguely know about the idea of "cap and trade", but that's not exactly something they think of as being relevant to their lives or their efforts to mitigate climate change, even if it is.
there's a huge gap between the public's willingness to participate in these type of carbon reduction plans and their knowledge about how to actually do so and how much they should actually be contributing to make up for their personal carbon footprint.
i'm not proposing to do anything revolutionary. creating a new source of offsets is a non-starter. my idea is merely to close the gap.
to inform people that they aren't powerless, and to reduce the friction of navigating the carbon markets at the scale they would prefer.
It's just for capitalists to believe they can keep flying by planting trees.
however, they can fund projects to help people with less money to reduce their emissions by an equal amount, generating a large value in beneficial externalities as a result.
if i purchase an offset and the proceeds go to a hydropower project in india, there's a lot more going on there than the compensation for one ton of emissions alone.
we can't wait for the political leadership to get their game together any longer, and we can't wait for the part of the population that doesn't belive there is a crisis to come around either.
we need to start financing the prevention or removal of carbon from the atmosphere today, using the voluntary carbon markets that we have. there aren't another five or ten years of indecision that we can afford to waste. and we don't have any better system for emissions reductions, yet.
those of us who understand the gravity of our present climate situation have the burden of carrying everyone else on our backs to the extent that we are able. addressing our planet's health is not something that will be fair in terms of the responsibilities that we need to take. an idealistic few must come forth and create the means for our mutual salvation, and they can expect only to thanklessly toil in the short-term.
it's a bitter pill to swallow, but we need to accept it and start moving forward rather than getting mired in spite towards those who won't help, or fatalism that we can't change our situation. taking action will be our protection against depression, and chipping away at our planet's climate crisis will inspire others to join our efforts.
send me an email (it's in my profile) if you want to help/join me. i need anyone and everyone who wants to contribute.
but be warned: if you want to join my effort, at present i can promise you nothing but my appreciation and the assurance that you're trying to be one of the good guys.