Low-Impact Avatar Man
by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on 04.14.08
An entire world is thriving in the virtual online community Second Life. With TreeHuggers in the game, elements of environmentalism are slowly seeping into play.
Last year there was a massive flood, to simulate the effects of global warming.
Around that time, TH reported that an average Second Life avatar consumes as much electricity as a real life Brazilian.
A number of projects to help offset the carbon emissions created during one’s virtual play have popped up, and more recently Carbon Catalog wrote about a new initiative. The US-based carbon offset company 4Offsets has set up a virtual carbon offset shop inside the Second Life world.
“If you don’t have much of a real life, consider offsetting your virtual one,” writes Carbon Catalog: “Starting this week some 20 million registered users participating in the multi-player game Second Life (SL), now have a chance to offset their carbon emissions produced during play.”
“Our goal at 4Offsets is to get the average citizen involved in the fight against global warming and supply them with offsets,” said Fred Weiss, 4Offsets’ CEO: “Second Life is a great place for 4Offsets, because not only can we discuss Global Warming, we can actually allow participants to offset the CO2 emitted from their virtual footprint.”
A video inside Second Life:
While 4Offsets doesn’t seem to offer enough credible information to convince us to offset with them, consider a company like TerraPass, or any other which we’ve praised on TreeHugger. They’ll help you calculate both you and your avatar’s impact. Or back over at Carbon Catalog, check out the provider’s ratings to gauge transparency and quality of offsets being sold.
Your avatar will be carbon neutral in no time. Hey, and maybe someone can invent a carbon tax, or carbon neutral police at Second Life. Just an idea...
