Carbon Offsets - Strong Medicine or Placebo?

In the 21st century, achieving 100% carbon neutrality can be a daunting task. Simple activities such as watching television, sending an email message, cooking and making a phone call, all produce carbon emissions. Carbon offsets offer an alternative to reducing emissions by enabling individuals and businesses to compensate for their carbon emissions by purchasing credits which offset their emissions output.

Carbon Credits originate from The United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (under the Kyoto Protocol) that provides a fixed allowance of carbon emission for each country and allows carbon credits to be bought and sold. European Union nations are selling these allowances as carbon credits. EU Companies may control (reduce) their CO2 emissions or purchase credits at approximately $27 per metric ton CO2 credit. The United States has recently shown a greater interest in signing the Kyoto agreement but until that occurs; the demand for carbon credits in the US is limited, with credits selling for as low as $1.50 per ton. Note that in anticipation of an active, vibrant carbon credit marketplace, established companies including prominent utilities have begun to offer carbon offset purchase services.

Renewable energy such as wind farms, solar panel installation, small hydro turbines, geothermal energy, and biomass energy can all create carbon offsets by displacing fossil fuels. Other types of offsets include those resulting from energy efficiency projects, methane capture from landfills or livestock, destruction of potent greenhouse gases, and reforestation projects that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Proponents believe that carbon offsets, together with personal carbon reductions, provide an important solution to global warming. Critics argue that carbon offsets enable those with means to avoid making the hard choices and taking the necessary steps to reduce carbon emissions.

Stan Gassman is a co-founder and principal of BSC Sustainability Services, http://www.bscsustainabilityservices.com a consulting company devoted to helping clients increase marketplace value by incorporating sustainability within their culture and operations.

Contact Stan via email, sgassman@bscsustainabilityservices.com

Tahiti Vacation Packages - Enjoy Romance and Adventure at These Islands in the Sun

If your version of paradise is sitting on a white sand beach sipping a long cool drink under a crystal clear blue sky you're going to want to pack your bags and head out to the Tahitian islands.

These islands in the sun have been offering idyllic vacations at first class hotels and restaurants for many years.

Booking Tahiti Vacation packages and going to one of the Tahiti resorts or Moorea resorts can be one of the most sensual experiences you will ever enjoy.

Quite a few travel companies specialize in Tahiti vacation deals. If you're flying from the US mainland, all-inclusive Tahiti vacation packages give you the best value for your money. They even include round trip air fare from Los Angeles.

The Manihi Pearl Beach Resort

The Manihi Pearl Beach Resort is a popular spot and is only a mile from the town of Uturoa.
The clear water of Manihi, a famous diving destination for black pearls, attracts both novice and experienced divers from around the world.

Their travel deal includes a night's stay in the hotel with a view of the lagoon followed by seven nights in an air-conditioned bungalow on the beach.

The hotel has a bar, a swimming pool and a restaurant on the premises.

As a guest you'll get a complimentary breakfast, dinner for two and diving instruction.

Once, while sipping a Hinano beer at Tahiti Nui's on Kauai's north shore, I was talking with Louise. She was the owner of this quaint little bar by Hanalei Bay.

She was born in Tahiti and raved about its beauty.

And then she said, "Yes, Tahiti is beautiful, but there is nothing in the world as beautiful as Moorea".

The InterContinental Moorea Resort and Spa

The InterContinental Moorea Resort and Spa also offers special deals at these islands in the sun.

Here you'll spend one night in a Garden Room and six nights in a beach bungalow.

This Tahiti vacation package offers a lot of things "free of charge" including the use of an outrigger canoe and snorkeling equipment.

You can also go on excursions, and use the gym and tennis courts.

Tahiti honeymoons and more

Many companies offer Tahiti honeymoons vacation packages. There's probably nowhere more romantic to get married or honeymoon than Bora Bora.

The Exotic Honeymoon Tahiti vacation package includes a one night's stay in the Tahiti Le Meridien Hotel in a room with a view of the lagoon and five night's stay in the Bora Bora Le Meridien Hotel overwater bungalow.

From the bungalow you will enjoy spectacular views of Mount Otemanu.

Included in this Tahiti travel package are six breakfasts and five dinners for two. You'll also receive welcome flowers, a Polynesian jewel gift, a sunset cruise, and champagne.

You can opt for excursions, too. Perhaps you'd like a trip around the lagoon at Bora Bora where you can see sharks and sting rays.

You don't have to be on your honeymoon to enjoy these islands in the sun? There are many other specialist Tahiti vacation packages including those focusing on families, cruising, or diving.

Want to save huge amounts of money every time you travel? Then check out Save on Airfare Secrets where a travel agent reveals inside information about how to get the lowest prices on airfare, car rentals, hotels and cruises. And for some tips on making your wildest dreams come true take a look at http://TheGreatestDreamVacations.com now and see how you can make it happen.

(c) Copyright - Steve Schulman. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Best Travel Writing - Top 10 Travel Novels

It's hard to find great travel writing, but it's out there. Part of the reason for this is that so much travel writing is also considered nature writing or narrative non-fiction. Part of the reason is that the field is so competitive because of a lot of good authors competing for a relatively small market space. But there is a wide array of great travel fiction out there, and here is my list of the best ten travel novels I've read over the past couple years.

10) Through Painted Deserts, by Donald Miller. This is one I actually found in the "Christian Non-Fiction" section, which can be unfair. There's no question Miller is a Christian, but he's a writer first and foremost, he's not preachy, and his questioning of his own faith, of reasons for existence, of who and what he is or is becoming is reminiscent of the fantastic soul searching that came from the travel writing of the Beat generation. Miller's account of his trip is great, going through the moments of beauty, the necessity of good road trip music, and admitting his moments of embarrassment and fear as freely as any other part of his journey.

9) Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah MacDonald. The early reading of this book can be hard, because after the first few chapters there's a lot of the Western perspective, the whining of living conditions and poverty, the type of scorn you don't care to read from travel writing. I'm glad I read the rest, because like "Through Painted Deserts," "Holy Cow" is about the author's journey. Sarah evolves and changes chapter to chapter in front of you as she sheds the scornful nature of an atheist "too smart" to fall for superstition, and she opens up, traveling through India and sampling all the different religious beliefs and practices as she becomes a humble Theist who learns happiness, learns to grow, and learns that alien cultures can have a lot to offer the open traveler.

8) Into the Wild by John Krakauer. I first caught sight of this book at a Barnes and Noble on one of the feature tables. I was on winter break from Alaska and visiting family in Iowa. I picked up the book, sat down, and read the entire work in one sitting. Travel book, journalistic book, nature book, adventure book-whatever you call it, this is one heck of a read, and the debate this book causes is deep and passionate. As a wanderlust traveler, I understand the drive the main character feels, as an Alaskan, I understand the native perspective of irritation, of the lack of understanding that nature is brutal and especially Alaska needs to be respected as such.

7) Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown, by Paul Theroux. Paul Theroux is at his best in "Dark Star Safar," where his skills of observation and his dry wit are on full display. Paul takes readers the length of Africa via overcrowded rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train in a journey that is hard to forget. There are moments of beauty, but there are also many moments of misery and danger. This is a narration of Africa that goes beyond the skin deep to dare to look at the deeper core of what is often referred to as "The Dark Continent."

6) Blue Highways: A Journey Into America, by William Least Heat-Moon. This is an auto-biographical travel journey taken by Heat-Mean in 1978. After separating from his wife and losing his job, Heat-Moon decided to take an extended road trip around the United States, sticking to "Blue Highways," a term to refer to small out of the way roads connecting rural America (which were drawn in blue in the old Rand McNally atlases). So Heat-Moon outfits his van, named "Ghost Dancing" and takes off on a 3-month soul-searching tour of the United States. The book chronicles the 13,000 mile journey and the people he meets along the way, as he steers clear of cities and interstates, avoiding fast food and exploring local American culture on a journey that is just as amazing today as when he first took the journey.

5) The Lost Continent, by Bill Bryson. There are tons of fantastic Bill Bryson books out there, and any one of them could hold this spot here. "The Lost Continent" is Bryson's trip across America, visiting some common places (the grand canyon), but also exploring the back roads and looking for that familiarity that helps him remember home.

4) Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventures and Romance by Pico Iyer. Probably one of the best travel writing collections released in recent memory, this collection is under the name Pico Iyer, who helped to edit this collection. These stories come from the "Wanderlust" section of Salon.com and create a varied tapestry of travel writing that will keep the reader flipping from one writer to another.

3) A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins. This is one of the all time modern classics in travel literature, as Peter Jenkins recalls the story of his 1973-1975 walk from New York to New Orleans. For many readers, this remains a rare travel book that grips you and keeps you. Known as a travel writer who will walk anywhere, including Alaska and China, Peter Jenkins says, "I started out searching for myself and my country and found both." That sums up what travel writing should be all about.

2) Travels w/ Charlie by John Steinbeck. This was a novel that helped John Steinbeck win a Nobel Prize in Literature. "Travels with Charlie" is a fantastic travel narrative that gets to the heart of travel, the point of the trip, and the strange confrontation and realization that the places and people you remember are gone once you are. As he revisits the places of his youth that many of his books are based on, he realizes on seeing old friends that they're as uncomfortable with him being back as he is with being there. A great story about travel, about home, about mourning lost history, about aging, and about America-this should be required reading for every high school student.

1) The Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac. The beat generation was full of great travel narratives, and Jack Kerouac was the master of powerful, moving, passionate language that unfolded stories like few people have ever managed. While "On the Road" is the most often pointed to travel narrative by Kerouac, "The Dharma Bums" is a better book. Full of passion, interesting characters and stories, and the kind of passionate language and powerful prose that made the beat generation writers popular, this Kerouac book is extraordinary and deserving of its number one spot.

If you found this article informative and would like to learn more, please feel free to visit me at http://www.squidoo.com/travel-writing-novels

Travel Brazil To The Carnival

The beauty and their girls sensuality, their beautiful and converged beaches, full with visitors from all over the world, an excellent cuisine, the happiness of its people, represented in its carnivals, among others is some of the reasons for which we recommend you this earthly paradise. Let us know a little about this country that is among the tourist destinations chosen by many American citizens.

Brazil is characterized by the extensive low-lying Amazon Rainforest in the north and a more open terrain of hills and low mountains to the south, home to most of the Brazilian population and its agricultural base. Along the Atlantic seacoast are also found several mountain ranges, reaching roughly 9,500 ft (2,900 metres) high.

Located mainly within the tropics, Brazil's climate has little seasonal variation. In southern most Brazil, however, there is subtropical temperate weather, occasionally experiencing frost and snow in the higher regions. Precipitation is abundant in the humid Amazon Basin, but more arid landscapes are found as well, particularly in the northeast.

According to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Brazil has the ninth largest economy in the world at Purchasing Power Parity and eleventh largest at market exchange rates. Brazil has a diversified middle income economy with wide variations in development levels. Most large industry is agglomerated in the South and South-East. The North-East is the poorest region of Brazil, but it is beginning to attract new investment.

There is general consensus, that Brazil has the highest number of both terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates of any country in the world.

Read this article complete in our webiste: http://www.latinguides.com/travel/travel-brazil-carnival.html

Latin America Travel Guideshttp://www.latinguides.com

The Power to Overcome Molds

Molds can be irritating.. They sort of come as they please and we let them go by cleaning up and still they come back not even invited.. What do we know as to how and why they exist in this world? For one, they exist not for the inside of the house but for the outside.. They help in nature stuff.. environment related they feed on decaying or dead matter..

They usually aren't a problem indoors except when they land on a wet spot (need not large amount of water present) and thus the beginning of their growth.. Feeding for them is growing, so whatever or wherever surface they came to grow they are digesting it. Untreated and unchecked growth of molds results to damage of a structure like building, or rather cause stains to furnishings.. Are you aware that it causes health problems too? It does! They travel b air, so we unconsciously inhale them into our system, maybe that coughing or sneezing you just did are caused by them molds..

Anyways, what now? It has become a threat in the inside of our homes and a threat to our healths.. If you search yourself, They travel through air, and grow as fast as 1-2 days and can already be visible, the 1st 4 hours even are the growing stage but can't be seen by the eye. Imagine that, that fast.. It has been a thousand years way back that mold exist, they have been a problem then and still are a problem now, and they do grow out of their line.. Their existence rely on moisture and starts growth when moisture is present..

Molds can appear in different colors,common are white and black mold, etc., but generally they first appear like a blot.. But, If you happen to see them in covering a large surface area, then definitely they have formed a colony, and if untreated, they go across the surface and occupy the other space.

So what is the power to overcome MOLDS? Controlling them! If mold is inside your home then the basic thing to do is clean up using a mold remover and fix everything that has moisture problem.

Why? Molds exist when there is moisture remember? Keep that in mind, so whenever there is moisture, it will always grow on it.

Next is How: How do we control it? Control the moisture inside the house!! Just a few things to consider:

* Fix the leaky windows, pipes and roofs, plumbing so they won't have the chance to grow.

* Definitely thorough cleaning and drying after any flooding.

* Making sure that the shower, cooking areas and the laundry are well ventilated.

* Use mold and mildew remover products.

* Don't also forget to remove or replace carpets that have been soaked and you're having difficulty drying it up.

* Keep in mind that bathroom tiles and grout, basements walls, near leaky water fountains, around sinks and areas around windows are the best places for molds growing since that they are much exposed to moisture.

So again, we overcome molds by controlling their growth. If they start growing find ways as to cleaning them using a mold cleaner Do always remember that they grow on anything wet and there's no need for large amount of water, even just a small one.

Black mold can cause you and your family nasty health issues down the road.Find out how to kill mold to protect your future and your families health as well.

Caladesi Island

The Clearwater / Dunedin area is highly developed and traffic is fairly congested on the main highways, especially on US 19. So it's rather amazing after spending some time on Clearwater Beach, to discover a completely undeveloped island like Caladesi, with a virgin pine forest and 3 miles of completely undeveloped beaches. (A virgin forest is one that has never been cut for timber).

After taking the relaxing boat ride from Honeymoon Island (you'll probably see some dolphins on the way over), you will cruise through some thick mangrove forests (called a mangle) before disembarking at the marina located on the bay side of the island right in front of the concession where you can buy food or drink. You reach the beach by walking on a sidewalk and boardwalks for about 5 minutes. There are several covered picnic pavilions as well as picnic tables under the palms between the marina and the beach. Halfway to the beach you will encounter restroom facilities with changing rooms, showers, and a drinking fountain. Once out on the beach you can walk north for a mile or so, or south for many miles, although the park itself only encompasses 3 miles of beach. Beach wheelchairs are available from the rangers. There is a vendor near where the boardwalk ends on the beach if you want to rent beach umbrellas and chairs, or if you want to rent a kayak. They offer Ocean Kayaks.

What else can you do on the island? Go fishing, rent a kayak and paddle through the mangrove tunnels on the bay side of the island. Take a walk on the nature trail and see the oak and palm hammock (a type of forest). See the double-trunked pine tree. What will you see? Owls, birds of all kinds, rabbits, armadillos, snakes perhaps, and there is even a very curious wild turkey on the island. Don't be surprised to find the turkey following you!

Most likely you'll just head straight for the beach, which is wide and flat. The water is shallow and normally calm. This is great for snorkeling. Remember that you cannot keep live shells, and that includes the sand dollars that you find out in the water.

Caladesi has a natural beach which is not raked and manicured by the beach machines, so you may encounter more seaweed and beach wrack here than on Clearwater Beach. It also means that you will find more interesting things on the beach that have washed up.

There is a time limit of 4 hours on the island if you come over on the ferry.

Photos you can see on the link below

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