Reducing climate change is our biggest collective challenge and certainly feels hopeless. And yet, even as we press politicians to help mitigate the unfolding catastrophe, and we try in various ways to reduce our personal carbon footprint, we can also support people who are working on projects to reverse climate change.
Many of us are familiar with the F. Scott Fitzgerald quote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” We’re less familiar with the conclusion of his proposition: “One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.”
Which brings us to someone we spent time with recently, Ismael Huaman Zapata. Zapata runs Inca Trek Huaman, a small company that leads trips to Machu Picchu and other points of interest in Peru. Zapata is currently expanding his business plan to offer his clients opportunities at education and hands-on reforestation activities in and around his home village of Santa Teresa, Peru.
Although the area around Machu Picchu is mountainous jungle, like many similar communities, generations of locals have stripped the area of much of its native trees — to farm crops, build houses and to burn for cooking and heating. Zapata is planning efforts to restore his community’s environment by offering his clients the opportunity to transplant native plants from the remaining jungle to the denuded areas. Ths reforestation will also help sequester carbon.
Like many others, Zapata may be assisted in his efforts if he can obtain a certification of sustainability from one of several organizations that provide auditing and certification services. This will make it more likely that even nonclients can support his projects through donations. Which brings us to you and me.
You might remember when airlines back in the early 2000s started offering carbon credits for your flights when purchasing tickets. For a nominal additional charge, you could elect to pay an organization to plant trees or some similar sequester effort. The good news is that by 2021, airlines that fly internationally will have to offset their emissions under a UN agreement (called the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation). The bad news is, as Naomie Klein points out, capitalist-based carbon sequester efforts are often more concerned with appearance than substance, which has led to the creation of these auditing and certification organizations. To qualify for certification, an organization must show that, for example, the trees that they plant will not be harvested once they mature.
So if you want to do something more than press politicians to do the right thing, or travel by train instead of plane, or argue with climate change deniers on social media, visit a website (such as The Gold Standard), and set up a recurring monthly contribution to a group that is making our world a more sustainable place. And hire Zapata next time you are planning a trek to Machu Picchu. He is friendly, welcoming, steeped in the local culture, and speaks English well enough to educate you about the Inca trail and surrounding ruins.