Surfing magazine to buy carbon offsets

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., June 12 (UPI) -- California-based Surfing magazine announced that starting with its October issue it will buy carbon offsets to minimize its environmental impact.

The issue, dubbed the Second Annual Green Issue, will hit newsstands and surf shops Aug. 21, the magazine said in a news release carried by Business Wire. The effort represents a yearlong commitment by the magazine to reduce its carbon footprint.

"This year, in addition to expanding our coverage of ocean-awareness-related issues, we wanted to make the magazine itself more accountable," said Evan Slater, a top surfer and the magazine's editor.

The company is working with Carbonfund.org for the project and will buy carbon offsets in the form of mangrove reforestation projects in India. Surfing magazine hopes to neutralize its carbon footprint through reforestation of the mangroves, which are a key habitat for fish and filter ocean pollution.

"We have an obligation to protect the resources that give us so much joy," Ross Garrett, the magazine's publisher. "Offsets aren't the whole answer, but they might buy us some time."

Under carbon offsets, an entity pays to reduce emissions elsewhere in order to counter its own greenhouse gas emissions. This can -- as in the case of Surfing magazine -- take the form of reforestation, which serves to buffer harmful emissions.