I've studied Tourism impacts and the environment quite extensively. when i travel i try to use local transport as much as i can, i'm very concerned about my impacts on the environment when i travel- so much that i want to become an environmental officer for a tourism destination however I do not believe in Carbon offsetting. Most carbon off setting schemes you are paying an organisation to plant trees (most which won't be native to the region of the tree planting -very negative impact!) or money goes towards 'research' into reducing global warming. With scientist saying the world is getting hotter oceans while rise within 20 years blah blah.... let not forget its take 300 years for a single Carbon molecule to break up in the atmosphere. hmmm time is running out.

Instead as a tourist if you feel guilty of your impact instead of carbon off setting we should be more concerned on our environmental impact in a new country e.g. not littering, not picking flowers & touching flora & fauna, alway using designated footpathes, don't buy shells or coral related products, look into local charity's that plant indigenous species and give back to the local economy. Whilst in some cases there is very little we can do about the effects of global warming but we can do our best to protect the local environment when we travel