EcoLocalizer

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Worldchanging magazine has announced that it is selling the ultimate environmentalist gift for high school and college graduates: carbon offsets for life.

This means that for every donation above a certain level, Worldchanging will buy carbon offsets in the name of the graduate.

But the price of this gift is not cheap—the minimum donation is $6,000 to offset a graduate’s childhood, and the max is $25,000 to offset an entire career. It also raises an important question: what will such a present do to the mindset of the recipient?

While Worldchanging is certainly performing a wonderful service with their carbon offset program, the certificates seem similar to the indulgences once granted by the Catholic Church. Will graduates who have been granted this enormous environmental pardon feel that they no longer have a responsibility to do their part? And will they think that they are on moral high ground when it comes to using gas-guzzling vehicles and jetting from place to place?

For those with an environmental conscience and money to burn, I say go ahead and buy all the carbon offsets you can. It certainly doesn’t do any harm. But perhaps we should let new graduates who are just realizing the huge problems we have to contend with find their own way without feeling that they have been granted a free ride. We can use all the help in our local communities that we can get—and a lasting dedication to healing our planet is better than any certificate.