SOCIAL NORMS & INFLUENCING OTHERS
Wk5 - Flying and Carbon Offsets

Perhaps equally important to slashing your own footprint is influencing others to do the same. To help you share your journey and promote the ideas and tools that can help others on theirs, we’ve compiled the examples below.

When someone else reduces their emissions as a result of your actions, you’re doing even more than your fair share!

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Spread the word through your social media accounts, text messages or, good old-fashioned conversations with your friends and family.

Pro Tip: Add one of these to your email signature.

1. Your Story
“I’m taking a 6-week course to slash my footprint because I want to do my part. Let me know if I can help you with what I’m learning!”	“For my next vacation, I’m going to do a road trip with some friends to ______ instead of flying there! This way, we get to see more and emit less carbon.”	“I want to have the smallest carbon footprint I can while still having big adventures. Shorter flights have smaller footprints; that's why this year I’m going to travel to ____ instead of ____.”
“Tree-planting is a popular offset - but refrigerant destruction may be a better option. I’m offsetting my flying footprint with these ______ offsets!”	“Has anyone ever used offsets to reduce their carbon footprint? I’m looking to use Terrapass to offset my traveling footprint.”	“I’m going to fly less to lower my carbon footprint! Does anyone have any amazing destinations that are within driving distance? What about by train?”
2. Something You've Learned
Reduce your flying and significantly reduce your carbon footprint. Can you road trip it? Skip a flight? Stack trips together? Do it closer? Fly economy? Fly direct?	Asking yourself, “could we have a similar experience that is closer?” can slash the footprint of your trip while also saving you money and time.	What are offsets? They are projects that stop carbon from being emitted or sequester carbon. Buy quality ones to reduce/zero out your footprint.
High-quality carbon offsets are essentially reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a project that has been independently audited against leading, third-party certification standards.	It is fairly extreme to get to a really low carbon footprint, so offsets are currently a useful tool to get us there. Buy what you can afford!	Did you know you can find a greener flight on kayak.com and google? I just learned that you can search for flights, then sort by "Lowest CO2."
The U.S. is responsible for almost ¼ of all aviation emissions despite being one of 195 countries! The majority of the emissions are from domestic flights.	Half of all global emissions from air travel come from frequent fliers who make up less than 1% of the total population.	1 flight from LA to Bali has the same carbon footprint as 14 flights from LA to Baja!
Aviation is responsible for nearly 3% of global emissions today, but by 2050, emissions are expected to grow to a shocking 25%	Traveling by high-speed rail can reduce carbon emissions up to 90% compared to driving, flying, or riding conventional railways.	A return flight from London to San Francisco emits around 5.5 tonnes of CO2e per person – that’s more than twice the emissions produced by a family car in a year, and about half of the average carbon footprint of someone living in Britain.
4. Inspiring Quotes
"One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.” -E.M. Forster	“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” -Chinese Proverb	“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read.” -César Chávez
“A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it, is committing another mistake.” -Confucius	"It is not enough to be compassionate – you must act." -The Dali Lama	"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." -Theodore Roosevelt
5. Repost
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