It looks like I'll be in Dublin from Monday to Wednesday - huzzah! I'll have to remember Sebas' stilton, especially after I criticise his recent blog entry on carbon offsets.

Basically they're a con, especially tree planting schemes :(

There's a very good article in the New Internationalist summarising a lot of the issues. But basically, the calculations are very dodgy, and the effect is to legitimise unnecessary air travel rather than to reduce it, which is what we desperately need to do. There is nothing approaching a scientific consensus on the role of forests in the climate systems, and many tree planting schemes are believed to actually contribute to climate change! SinksWatch monitor this stuff, for those interest in digging deeper.

Anyway, the best thing is not to fly if possible. Your annual sustainable carbon budget is completely blown just by one flight from, say, the UK to Turkey. No electricity heating, day to day travel, food or shopping for you then! If you feel you must fly then try to offset it by investing in a local renewable energy project, or something else that will unambiguously reduce carbon dioxide emissions, or get involved in green activism and help avert a crisis that will dwarf our silly little worries about software :)