Carbon offsets used to be a popular way for consumers to reduce their carbon footprint by paying airlines and outside companies to balance their carbon usage, but many believe that some key issues will continue to keep offsets from being a
viable option.

“Carbon offset is kind of what it sounds,” SMU Dedman School of Law Professor Jeffrey Gaba said.

“It’s allowing somebody to increase their emissions or not decrease by having somebody else do it.”

Some travel companies and independent firms offer ways to balance your carbon usage.

“Corporate firms in the U.S. in the travel industry and many others have sort of tried to give an estimate of the kind of carbon footprints that you sort of leave behind when you travel or you buy something, and then they are offering you a way to get rid of your guilt,” SMU Department of Economics Professor Santanu Roy said.

These carbon “get out of jail free” cards don’t come without controversy.

“You as a buyer, you buy 20 dollars or hundred dollars of carbon offset and you feel very good,” Roy said.

“The firm then goes and gives this amount of money to some agency, which then transfers it to someone in some other country who’s supposed to then sell you this emissions reduction. Do they actually do it? We don’t really know.”

There were mixed emotions on whether North Texans would opt to offset their carbon.

“At this point, economically, I don’t know that I would do it,” said one Highland Park resident.

“Do I believe a system which relies on voluntary actions, requiring individuals to pay money, do I think that will effectively deal with global warming? Not for a single second,” Gaba said.