I appreciate Sandra Folzer’s thoughts about taking the environmental damage caused by airplane flights seriously (“Before You Fly, Consider Your Carbon Footprint,” July/August, 2019). The New York Times article she mentioned leads to others in the Times that voice similar shifts in thought about travel.

When our conscience allows us to take a flight, can we do something to offset the damage that she well documents? There are great organizations that will plant trees, which are carbon sponges, among their many other gifts. There are other organizations that preserve forested land.

A small amount of research has led me to these groups:

Cool Effect (cooleffect.org): Specifically offsets your carbon footprint to “wipe away the baggage of carbon pollution,” according to their website;

One Tree Planted (onetreeplanted.org): Each dollar you contribute pays for the planting of one tree. They use a variety of trees in a single space;

New Jersey Conservation Foundation (njconservation.org): Expands forest land near us;

Natural Lands Trust (natlands.org): headquartered in Media

Probably such a donation will not completely offset the single flight damage as Sandra describes it, but it will help. Not all of us are visionary radical activists, but we can all do better, and must.

Thanks, Sandy, for your work.

- Kate Pourshariati