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The New York Times ran a wonderful article the other day entitled, "A New Way to Ask, 'How Green is My Conscience?"

Discussed in this article is the budding new industry of Carbon Offsets, where a consumer pays money to offset his or her "carbon footprint" by using a "carbon calculator." Basically, there are a few really great organizations that calculate for you the following: If you pollute X, you can pay Y to make up for it.

Brilliant idea, eh?

For instance, over at the Conservation Fund, you can tabulate your carbon footprint generated when you heat and light your home, when you drive your car, and when you fly. From their carbon calculator, you get a yearly output of carbon that you generate and the equivalent number of trees needed to offset the amount of carbon you generate as a consumer. You then send that amount to the Conservation Fund and they plant the allotted number of trees to offset your carbon footprint.

At TerraPass, they calculate your carbon footprint only from driving and come up with the amount you need to contribute to offset the carbon generated, which funds wind farms, methane capture and more. In fact, Ford Motor Co. has a partnership with them to encourage drivers to buy carbon offsets.

Cool Driver does basically the same thing, but they have other resources as well.

Two other sites worth visiting (and contributing to) are: CarbonFund.org and GreenTagsUSA.org

The article goes on to describe other creative ideas out there to get us to "carbon neutral":

Similar opportunities to become "climate neutral" can be found at concerts, music festivals and sports events, and even while shopping: On June 9, Gaiam, a retailer in Broomfield, Colo., that sells products including solar lighting and organic cotton sheets, started offering a $2 "carbon neutral" shipping option, with the money going to the Conservation Fund to plant trees.

At the Lenox, a hotel in Boston, the Eco Chic package, at $309, costs more than a usual one-night stay ($239 and up). In return, guests get breakfast, passes for Boston public transportation — so they don't have to drive a car — and a copy of "The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists." And the hotel buys enough renewable power to offset the greenhouse gas produced during the guest's stay: about 52 pounds of carbon emissions a night.

Clif Bar, a company in Berkeley, Calif., that sells energy bars, also sells $2 "Cool Tags" at concerts and sports events to offset the cost of the drive; the money goes to NativeEnergy for wind farms.

Finally, accountability is essential to avoiding a scandal which would cripple this budding new industry, and the article addresses this, too:

The Conservation Fund sends certificates to supporters, telling them when and where their trees were planted. TerraPass has transactions verified by the Center for Resource Solutions. And the Climate Neutral Network, an independent nonprofit group in Portland, Ore., has developed a "Climate Cool" certification for carbon offset products, though it has not been widely adopted.

"We're trying to develop standards so we can make this transparent and not have scandals that destroy the market," said Lars Kvale, an analyst at the Center for Resource Solutions.

So, as we slide into the 21st Century, you can be certain that the Carbon Offsets industry will only grow exponentially, especially once the Bush Administration leaves in 2008.

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