Well I never got an answer to my question, so perhaps it's time to have a carbon offset measuring contest? Here's mine:
Carbon credits are complete BS. How the EPA allows the selling of excess credits is beyond me. It doesn't tackle the enormous problem of corporate pollution. They blame you and I for driving to work instead of the 100 top companies responsible for some 70% of the world's pollution, including China & India's budding power plant infrastructure.
The reason they blame us is because they've traced the isotopes, or really the lack thereof, that are specific to burning fossil fuels. People can deny all they want, but the concrete evidence is now published, peer reviewed, and concluded. America gets the burden because we're the big bad back-to-back world war champs, but it's corporations and the evolving third world that really impacts our atmosphere.
That doesn't mean we should forget to take care of pollution, but I'd probably recommend starting off with the small things... like pistol whipping the next person you see tossing their fishing line clippings in the water and leaving bait and lure packaging amongst other trash along the banks of your local fishery. Those DB's deserve a beating.