FLY Greener

Cathay Pacific just launched their FLY Greener project that offers passengers the option of buying carbon offsets for their flight. To find out how much, there is a carbon emissions calculator. The calculator does not have Chengdu as a destination so I put in Los Angeles to Hong Kong. For a round trip in economy class, ~2 tonnes of CO2 is emitted; since Chengdu is a bit farther than Hong Kong, the entire trip probably works out to ~2.2 tonnes. To offset this, I can either pay ~HKD150/~USD20 or use 4000 Asia Miles.

I'm all for saving energy but I'm skeptical about carbon offset schemes. I read another article that lots of carbon offset projects are either not implemented, not effective, or just scams... kind of like Al Gore's offsets for his huge house that ended up going to an investment fund that he runs.