Author(s)

H. Gandhi & B. S. Thompson

Abstract

Global warming and climate change pose one of the most serious most serious challenges that humanity has ever confronted. But there has been a limited concerted response to this challenge of global warming and climate change and the response has been primarily through the vehicles of the Kyoto Protocol and the Voluntary Carbon Markets. While the Kyoto Protocol is focused on nations and voluntary carbon markets are driven by corporations, there has been one fundamental missing link in this equation: people, the 6.5 billion people who inhabit this earth. These individuals account for more than 50% of all green house gas emissions. Clearly there is a leadership vacuum when it comes to educating and mobilizing the masses to substantially impact climate change. It is the opinion of the authors that this must be rectified, and a vision is offered herein. The authors present an innovative concept of Volunteer Carbon Credits (VCCs) and utilize this concept for leveraging mass volunteerism and the viral nature of the web to demonstrate a platform for substantially impacting global carbon emissions. Specifically, they present the case study of Okemos High School, Michigan, USA which is the first high school in the world that has pledged to go carbon-neutral. Keywords: global warming, climate change, volunteer carbon credits.

Keywords

global warming, climate change, volunteer carbon credits