Can we afford to wait?
Listen. You can almost hear the Doomsday clock ticking. And it’s getting louder. According to the latest report, the world is on the brink of catastrophic and irreversible damage. The time to act is now. Not next year. Not sometime. Right now.
It’s now. Or never.
Day by day our planet is getting warmer. Its temperature is rising at a rate never seen before in human history. The consequences are becoming increasingly evident – melting ice caps, rising sea levels, erratic weather patterns, reduced air quality, water shortages and food shortages, amongst others. Any one of these is potentially disastrous; together, the impact is simply unimaginable.
Even to the layman, the topline statistics are shocking. By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. The amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years. These truths have not gone unnoticed – there is growing support for climate action, and a palpable shift in opinion and levels of distress. The world and its concerned inhabitants are crying out for something to be done.
The blame game
So, who’s to blame? Well, the truth is that we are all responsible. Our everyday activities, like eating, drinking, travelling, building, manufacturing, staying warm and staying cool, contribute to the problem. Everything we do has a carbon emissions impact. And excessive carbon is damaging our planet. Yet most of us have no idea of the impact of our carbon footprint, how we can reduce it, or what activities are the biggest contributors. Yes, those in power have taken notice and have taken some steps. But not nearly enough of them.
The world is moving – but slowly
195 countries have signed up to the Paris Climate Agreement. That means that 195 countries have committed to keeping global average temperatures from rising 2°C by the end of the century. If it rises beyond 2 degrees, we risk dramatically higher seas, changes in weather patterns, food and water crises, and an overall more hostile world.
However, this agreement is voluntary, so we can’t stop any participating countries from dropping out, (at the whim of a newly-elected president, for instance). Also, it doesn’t detail exactly how countries should achieve their targets. The Paris Agreement only provides a top-down framework to build momentum to reduce greenhouse gasses. This is not the speed we need to be applying to the issue of climate change. Time is running out.
The futility of pointing fingers
Sitting around accusing each other of neglect will get us nowhere. In fact, it will only serve to waste time that the environment can ill-afford. At this very moment, millions of ordinary people around the world are aching to ‘do their bit’, seeking a way of making a positive, meaningful contribution. But like so many of us, they feel utterly disempowered, unable to measure and see the efforts of governments. It seems impossible to make a real contribution without a significant investment in terms of money or time.
Introducing LivingOffset
LivingOffset is an exciting new a carbon offsetting platform that harnesses existing demand and enables those of us who want to fight climate change to do so in an accessible, affordable, easy to use way. Built on Blockchain technology, LivingOffset is trustworthy, immutable and entirely transparent.
A market-ready solution, driven by technology
The development of blockchain technology brings with it a new era of hope for our planet. Unlike so many of the world’s governments, with their relentless pursuit of industrialisation at all costs, and their disregard for the importance of the environmental agenda, this technology can, and will, allow real change to occur.
LivingOffset fills a gap. Rather than waiting for someone else to fix the problem, we have designed LivingOffset to enable consumers to take control of their own carbon emissions. It, literally, puts the power in the hands of the people
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The domino effect – in reverse
Education is a huge part of the solution. We have a simple message for the world: small changes to our habits can bring big changes. Positive changes. The more people know about the damage their everyday activities are causing, the more they are likely to change them. By making the climate-conscious aware that they can effectively offset their carbon usage against greenhouse gas reduction programmes, and proving that it works, we can encourage them to shift their concern up a gear – turning those who are passive into enthusiasts, who will spread the word.
Making it happen
LivingOffset strips back layers and layers of bureaucracy, so it becomes easy for all of us to offset the carbon cost of our lifestyles, and easy for businesses of all sizes to participate in as part of their CSR programmes.
A large portion of the LivingOffset revenue is set aside to fund or part-fund greenhouse gas reduction projects. Contributors will see exactly where their money is going, with all transactions recorded through blockchain.
How LivingOffset works
From a consumer point of view there are two ways to participate.
Firstly, there’s the LivingOffset mobile app. It’s free to download and easy to use. The app will allow users to log each of their actions (such as buying a coffee or taking a shower) and to offset the carbon these activities create with a small voluntary contribution to an approved carbon-reduction project. When we say a small contribution, we really do mean small. For example, the suggested contribution when you purchase a take away coffee is just 5c.
Secondly, when shopping online, and you get to the checkout page, you may notice a LivingOffset button. The idea of this is to prompt you to offset the carbon cost right there at the point of purchase, and to facilitate you doing so.
Corporate participation
Whether it’s through the app or the shopping website button, your monetary contribution is matched cent for cent by a company as part of its CSR programme. So your 5c contribution immediately becomes 10c, your 20c becomes 40c, effectively doubling the impact of your action.
Let’s not miss our chance
We’ve got one shot at saving our environment. One. This is the moment you can choose to be part of something of real significance; something with the power to halt the damage caused by carbon emissions; that will change the world. Therefore, LivingOffset is both a good investment, and an investment for good.
