That’s an interesting thought, but it makes me rather uncomfortable.
I think partly, I find it hard to believe the numbers (if I have time I will read the methodology in more detail and possibly be convinced).
And partly, I think there’s a difference between offsetting good things, and offsetting bad things. I think it’s plausible to say “I give this much to charity, or maybe this other charity, or maybe donate more time, or...”. But even though it sort of makes sense from a utilitarian perspective, I think it’s wrong (and most people would agree it’s wrong) to say “I’ll kick this puppy to death because I’m a sadist/a modern artist/whatever, but I’ll give more money to charity afterwards.” Paying someone else to be vegetarian sounds at least as much like the latter as the former to me.
That’s an interesting thought, but it makes me rather uncomfortable.
I think partly, I find it hard to believe the numbers (if I have time I will read the methodology in more detail and possibly be convinced).
And partly, I think there’s a difference between offsetting good things, and offsetting bad things. I think it’s plausible to say “I give this much to charity, or maybe this other charity, or maybe donate more time, or...”. But even though it sort of makes sense from a utilitarian perspective, I think it’s wrong (and most people would agree it’s wrong) to say “I’ll kick this puppy to death because I’m a sadist/a modern artist/whatever, but I’ll give more money to charity afterwards.” Paying someone else to be vegetarian sounds at least as much like the latter as the former to me.