What happens when I buy a carbon offset?

[RitterSport]

For what it’s worth, I started a related thread over in IMHO:

Carbon Offset Programs

In a thread in FQ, I’m trying to figure out how much extra CO2 I’ll emit if I buy a regular car instead of a hybrid or plug-in hybrid. The idea being, what if I bought the regular car and used some of the savings to purchase carbon offsets – sort of like imposing a carbon tax on myself. The price is surprisingly low, like less that $200 over 10 years (assuming I have the math right over there). This is suspicious – can I really offset my additional carbon emissions for $20/year? Someone in t…