Reduce Your Carbon Footprint When You Travel

So I'm going back to Florida to visit my Nana, who is very sick, after school is finished in June, and bought my plane ticket yesterday. After the purchase, I was presented with an interesting option: I could choose to donate a few dollars to help "offset my carbon footprint".

A company called Sustainable Travel International, a "non-profit that supports global climate protection and environmental conservation", is working with Continental (not sure about other airlines) to collect donations from travelers who fly and want to contribute to the environment. You have a choice between a few different options. I foolishly didn't copy all the information for the post, but I can tell you I decided to give $9.51 (suggested based on my carbon emission estimate, below) to the Gold Standard Projects, which are defined as:

Wind power and other renewable energy projects that have audited and meet criteria established by a consortium of 44 international environmental organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund.

There were Silver Standard Projects, and something else I can't remember, but this one blended the almost-ten-dollars between a few things, like re-forestation efforts as well as

My carbon emission estimate (based on my itinerary) was 0.2641 metric tons of CO2. It's strange to think I've been personally responsible for generating a fifth of a metric ton of anything, but I do know that jet fuel is a nasty, toxic substance, and burning it sure isn't helping matters. But we've got to get where we're going, and planes aren't going anywhere, so in the meantime, I feel at least a little better. Maybe someday we'll all fly places on aircraft that doesn't spew horrific amounts of pollutants all the time...