Greennettle flies

Judging by my last few posts you'd think my name ought to be Greennettle, not Bluenettle, as the environment seems to be my only inspiration at the moment. That's no bad thing.

But Greennettle looks silly because it has an annoying double n in the middle and it's plainly dull because nettles really are green. Whoever heard of a blue nettle? Exactly. I'm unique.

Maybe tomorrow I might think of a different theme. Today I'm going to tell you how to feel better about flying (did you know one flight to somewhere not that far away is the equivilant per passenger, pollution wise, of driving a Mini around the world ninety-ish times? I forget the details but it was on the front page of The Independent not that long ago) by "neutralising" your carbon emissions.

Climate Care will calculate your carbon dioxide emissions (not just from flying, but that's where my guilt lies) and let you buy offsets which will go to fund sustainable energy projects to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by the same amount. There are other companies that offer similar things, but I liked Climate Care the best. You don't get a fancy paper certificate like some companies offer (nice email tho), but that's nothing to fret over. And it's all so simple.

If you don't know too much about this type of thing and think it's probably expensive - it's not (although Climate Care have a minimum purchase of £5). I don't think it will be long before all airlines are offering offsets as a part of their ticket prices. Although I'm sure they'll get an "administrative fee" in there as well, as always.