Perhaps I’ve had my head buried in the compost pile for too long, but it wasn’t until about a year ago that I’d learned of this concept of carbon offsets.

My family and I were getting ready to embark on a “fan cruise” with our favorite band Barenaked Ladies on their Ships & Dips cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. The organizing company, Sixthman from Atlanta, had partnered with a green company so that cruisers could purchase carbon offset credits while on board to make the cruise carbon neutral. According to organizers, people donated enough money to offset 3,250 tons of carbon from the cruise.

OK, that sounds really great, but what does that mean in the real world? Because it feels really vague, really “I’ll gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today” to me.

I mean, a cruise ship uses a ton of energy–one website, About My Planet, estimates that in one day, one cruise ship produces the same amount of exhaust as 1,000 trucks. Pee-yew! How can a so-called carbon offset really help?

Well, for one thing, it’s not like this giant, wind-powered vacuum appeared from the sky and sucked up all of the cruise ship’s exhaust as we sailed to Turks and Caicos and back (and rocked out with the band in the process, but I digress). No, that pollution was there to stay, and no amount of magical carbon offsets could make it disappear. However, somewhere in the world, that carbon offset money was going to support a green initiative, such as energy companies that are investing in wind power instead of coal-burned power. That means that in a perfect world, down the road there will be more things like wind farms up and running, and people will need to rely less on the pollution-producing energy sources, like coal. Then in our future perfect world, the air will be cleaner to begin with, and exhaust from rock band cruise ships won’t have such a detrimental effect on the environment. Or so folks says.

In the meantime, many companies and consumers are jumping on the carbon-offset bandwagon. I just heard about a new Bank of America credit card that lets you earn carbon-offset points. Of course, if you’re driving to the mall regularly to shop using this green credit card, you might be negating that credit card’s carbon-neutral effect. Travel companies like Travelocity and Expedia let you purchase carbon-offset points along with your airline tickets for what I guess would be your carbon-neutral vacation. (Hey, where does one actually go for a carbon-neutral vacation? I’m guessing some place with a lot of carbon-dioxide producing trees, right?)

This year, our frugal budget won’t allow for such luxuries as a fan cruise or the purchase of carbon-offset credits to ease our guilty conscience about taking a pollution-causing cruise. No, I think I’m good for now when it comes to carbon offsets.

Here’s my plan: I’ll continue to walk for my errands and earn free groceries with my ShopRite credit card. And if I want to support any pollution-decreasing initiatives, I’ll look into switching to PECO’s Wind Power program or installing solar panels on my house. Meanwhile, I’ll keep an eye out for other companies and corporations that join the carbon-offset parade. And who knows? Maybe they really are doing some good and, in the long run, we should support them by giving them our business. But I think it might be too soon to say.

Now for your viewing pleasure, please watch this “recycled energy commercial” for EDF Energy that left me smiling. Greenwashing, perhaps, but fun to look at nonetheless.