Leaving on a Jet Plane...spewing carbon

Have you ever been given the option to pay the carbon offset for your flight? Have you ever chosen to pay it? I am on my way to the airport now for a flight to the US to visit my wonderful family. I wasn't given the option when booking through United Airlines, but I wonder if I would have paid it even if I was. Whenever I fly, the tiny environmental activist on my left shoulder starts wagging his finger at me and lecturing on the huge amounts of carbon emissions I am adding to the environment just because I have chosen to live so far from my immediate family. But then, the tiny underpaid accountant sitting on my right shoulder pulls out his calculator and tells me that my finances simply won't allow it. I defer to my seeping bank account.






What would you do? Here is some further discussion of the topic.

Here's a beautiful view of Kew Gardens out of the foggy window from the plane just before landing in Heathrow Airport on my return trip last week.