There’s a new website in the UK called www.pledgebank.com.
It aims to encourage people to take action by allowing them to make pledges, for example,
“I will use public transport to get to work for a month, but only if 50 other people do too”.
By signing the pledge, you’re not only doing something worthwhile yourself, but making it more likely that others will stick to it too. By pledging meaningful things people can relate to, it makes it more likely for people to respond.
So:
I’m adding a pledge to make my flight home this summer carbon neutral. I will go to www.futureforests.com and use their carbon calculator pay 30 GBPounds to plant the trees to offset the 2.16 tonnes of CO2 (their calculation) generated by my flight. For this you get smug peace of mind, a certificate and a carbon neutral baggage tag.
But only if 40 other Taiwan ex-pats do too.
If you’re leaving, or visiting home this summer pay the true cost of your flight and together we can make a difference.
[quote]“I will use public transport to get to work for a month, but only if 50 other people do too”.
[/quote]
I live in Taichung. If were to attempt to take public transport to work I would be spending more time getting to work than I would at work.
In the few places where public transport is available in Taichung, it is unreliable and dangerous.
[quote=“Eric W. Lier”][quote]“I will use public transport to get to work for a month, but only if 50 other people do too”.
[/quote]
I live in Taichung. If were to attempt to take public transport to work I would be spending more time getting to work than I would at work.
In the few places where public transport is available in Taichung, it is unreliable and dangerous.[/quote]
Sorry, the public transport thing was just an example, maybe not the best one to demonstrate the point. There are all kinds of pledges on the site. Anything that gains from more people taking part, is suitable.
My post relates to flying out of Taiwan this summer. There must be a few of us going places. We have quite a big environmental impact by jetting around the world. So lets pay the full cost.
I will if you will. Whether or not I will go carbon neutral if not enough people sign the pledge is a closely guarded secret. 
I’ll take the bus to work. But only if bob buys himself an SUV.
Seriously though fruitloop, this sounds weird to me – presumably you do something like this because you perceive a need, i.e. planting trees to make up for Co2 emissions.
But then, if 50 other people don’t do it, you don’t do it either? “They didn’t do it, so I’m not doing it.” That seems pretty un-civic-minded to me.
[quote=“sandman”]Seriously though fruitloop, this sounds weird to me – presumably you do something like this because you perceive a need, i.e. planting trees to make up for Co2 emissions.
But then, if 50 other people don’t do it, you don’t do it either? “They didn’t do it, so I’m not doing it.” That seems pretty un-civic-minded to me.[/quote]
It’s a pledge. He’s trying to get other people to pledge. Anyway, I’m flying back to the States for the summer so I’ll take you up on this. The cost was the same for me (30 Pounds).
Only 49 more to go… :bravo:
Actually, on the pledge site it’s only 40 people needed. Not 50.
Looks like he has his own rules then.
Maybe just a mistake. Anyway, here is the link for the pledge.
pledgebank.com/Carbonneutral
You’re right. I wrote the rules.
I wrote the forumosa message first. Then I wrote the pledge on the website with 50 as the sign up number. The website suggested altering that down to make it more attainable, so I reduced it by 10.
Simple really.
It’s true that if I really believe in something I should do it anyway. Maybe I will do it anyway. The point is I have promised that I will definitely do it if 40 others sign up. I have promised, so I will.
If they don’t sign up, it’s my private business whether I do or not. I’ll keep you guessing.
There are lots of things we could do. Lots of causes we could support. Practically, we can’t support all of them all of the time. We’re not un-civic minded if we don’t do everything that we conceiveably could do. This is one extra thing that I will definitely do if enough others do.
Ok then. 39 more to go. :bravo: Good luck!
I think one of the ideas behind the site is that the person making the pledge wants to make it happen, so will publicise it and try to get signatories.
So the other signatories are not actually committed to anything until I get off my arse and do something to make it happen.
www.pledgebank.com is a brand new project, only been online a couple of weeks. It’s had a wide range of pledges.
Some of these really require other people to make them viable like - I will set up a neighbourhood watch project if 10 other local people help.
Others are more like mine where if I do it alone that’s a good thing, but if 40 people do it, it’s great and we’ve all influenced each other to do something worthwhile.
The blurb on the site says, they don’t know how it will work out yet, which types of pledges will work better or worse. It’s an internet social experiment in progress that may have some positive outcomes.