Last time I felt this guilty was when I stole sugar from a sugar bowl 22 years ago. I didn't really, but I needed to have something to tell the priest for my first confession. And then the guilt continued for having lied to the priest in the first place. It's a vicious circle.

This time around the guilt I'm experiencing is for the hurt I've caused - to the environment. Since last September, I've clocked up 67,020 km air miles. That amounts to a production of 4.6 tonnes of CO2 resulting from 24 flights directly attributed to me. Eeek!

These days you can't escape the frenzy that has been generated by the media outlets, many of them newspapers (you can't fail to spot the irony here), regarding the damage that flying inflicts on the environment. The shame needed some way to seep out.

To offset this guilt, unlike me you can get your non-biodegradable credit card to the Carbon Neutral Company Web site who'll be glad to take some money from you in recompense for the damage your jetsetting has caused.

Think of how fuzzy and warm you'll feel inside when you give money to support "an area of wonderful new native UK forest which is sufficient to soak up your flight emissions (on average, it takes one tree grown to maturity to soak one tonne of CO₂)".

I guess I owe four and a half trees. How many do the Metro and Herald AM owe?

tags:carbon

Published by Colm.