Seems exactly the same to me. You pay some other organization some amount of money, and now you get a free pass to do whatever you want.

I had no idea this was really what everyone was talking about with carbon offsets.

This:

> You pay some other organization some amount of money,

contradicts this:

> and now you get a free pass

and you aren't allowed

> to do whatever you want.

You pay for a specific amount of carbon offsetting, so you don't get to claim carbon neutrality if you exceed the amount you offset.

Of course given that this is all voluntary someone could lie, but that would be asshole behavior, and if you did it at scale (i.e. if a corporation lied about it), you would be discredited - in reputation and potentially be facing civil lawsuits.