Do Good By Doing Bad

A new program allows gas-guzzlers to atone for their carbon dioxide transgressions for a small fee. What if we could offset our other indulgences, too?

Leaders of the Ford Motor Company, we salute you. Thanks to the automaker’s recently unveiled Greener Miles program, we can all look forward to buying and driving a new generation of gas-guzzling SUVs in good conscience.

Greener Miles allows customers to “offset” the environmental impact of their Ford automobiles by making online donations to projects that reduce greenhouse gasses. You no longer have to feel bad about driving that 13-miles-per-gallon Lincoln Navigator while the Arctic ice shelf melts beneath the paws of polar bears. At www.terrapass.com/Ford, SUV owners can sign up to pay some 22 cents a day to compensate for the 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide that their fossil-fueled chariots belch into the atmosphere annually. The funds go to supporting wind energy and dairy farms that capture methane from burning cow manure.

I think this is a wonderful idea