44. What Are Carbon Offsets?

As the idea of global warming gains more 1._____________in the world,

scientists are scrambling for a way to stop it before it’s too late. One of these ways is
by using carbon 2.___________(also called carbon sharing).
Carbon offsets were designed to help countries comply with their
3._____________under the Kyoto Protocol. Under the Kyoto Protocol, countries
agree 4.__________reduce their carbon emissions by a certain percent—carbon
emission are measured in tons of the carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. But
because these countries only have to reduce their total emissions, not every business
or organization – or even country—has to reduce their emissions 5.__________ the
same amount. They just have to reach the correct total reduction.
Some countries, companies, and organizations can reduce their carbon
emissions more easily than others. Carbon offsets 6.___________them to sell these
reductions to other entities that are more slowly. So a country or company can buy
carbon 7.___________ somewhere else. This prevents carbon from being emitted
somewhere, but not by that particular 8._____________.
Carbon offsets are 9._____________, because they allow polluters to avoid
reducing their own carbon emissions. “I won’t turn off my tap. I’ll pay someone else
$10 to pay someone else $2 to turn off their own tap,” explain members of the
environmental group Rising Tide, which 10.___________ carbon offsets. Others,
however, say that carbon offsets are a good way to reduce emissions overall while
big countries figure out how to cut their own emission without hurting their
economies.
As the Kyoto Protocol is enforced and the world becomes more serious about
greenhouse gas reductions, carbon offsets programs will become 11.___________.
Understanding this complex issue is very important if you want to stop global
warming. Keep researching, and decide for yourself if selling carbon offsets will help
or hurt us all.

to allow acceptance entity offsets controversial

obligations by credits widespread opposes

Vocabulary
1. scramble 2. protocol
3. emit 4. reduction
5. complex 6. enforce
7. greenhouse gas 8. issue
9. carbon dioxide 10. overall