science

PopOffsets

PopOffsets is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand PopOffsets rather than just read about it. In short: PopOffsets was a web-based, carbon offsetting project of Population Matters. In 2018 the project was superseded by Empower to Plan, a crowdfunding project for supporting family planning providers.

Key takeaways

PopOffsets belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect PopOffsets to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of PopOffsets from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

PopOffsets was a web-based, carbon offsetting project of Population Matters. In 2018 the project was superseded by Empower to Plan, a crowdfunding project for supporting family planning providers.

Population Matters Founded in 1991, Population Matters is a leading UK campaigning charity concerned with the effects of current world population growth on the natural environment, particularly regarding climate change. It advocates for population stabilisation through improved access to rights-based family planning schemes. Population Matters commissioned a research paper entitled "Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost" which indicates that addressing unmet needs for family planning is the most cost-effective way of reducing CO2 emissions and climate change – possibly less than one third of the cost of other technological fixes – without any environmental downsides. They estimate that every $7 (£4) spent on family planning saves one tonne of CO2. A similar reduction would require a $13 (£8) investment in tree planting, $24 (£15) in wind power, $41 (£31) in solar energy and $92 (£56) in hybrid vehicle technology. Launched in 2009, PopOffsets was the first and only carbon offsetting scheme worldwide investing its funds in rights-based family planning schemes, health programs, relationship and sex education. Population Matters considers that investing in family planning services is vital for environmental sustainability, with particular regards to women who have little or no access to these services. Every year there are 80 million unintended pregnancies in the world, which could be averted by making sex education and family planning services accessible to everyone.

How it worked The PopOffsets web-project offered a step-by-step guide enabling contributors to make online donations to Population Matters, in order to support rights-based family planning schemes. Contributors could calculate their estimated annual amount of CO2 emissions in their country of residence, using a "CO2 calculator". The calculator divided the total amount of the chosen country's CO2 emissions by the number of its citizens. The contributor could then decide to offset his/her annual CO2 emissions or to opt for a "one-off" amount, by determining the exact amount of CO2 that he/she is wishing to offset.

Funding The funds gathered from online donations were distributed between rights-based family planning schemes, contraceptive services and supplies, sex and relationship education and health programs. Population Matters aims to use the majority of its funds to meet the needs of over 200 million women worldwide who do not have access to family planning services.

Media coverage The launch of the PopOffsets project on 3 December 2009 received international media coverage from both print and broadcast media outlets, including in The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Express, The Telegraph, Reuters, BBC and Channel 4.

Criticism The PopOffsets program received some criticism mostly on the grounds that an offsetter will still have released carbon from fossil fuel consumption while people in developing countries that do not have their own reserves of fossil fuel, while still being responsible for any population growth related habitat loss and deforestation, will typically have very low levels of fossil fuel consumption. Population Matters, however, stressed that reduction of CO2 outputs by the wealthiest is a vital component of any strategy. Note that the replacement Empower to Plan scheme has no carbon offsetting component.

See also Carbon offset Population Matters

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with PopOffsets

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what PopOffsets claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to PopOffsets before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about PopOffsets ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of PopOffsets

In research: PopOffsets appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses PopOffsets in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: PopOffsets is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Carbon finance, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for PopOffsets outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study PopOffsets in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what PopOffsets means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain PopOffsets out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is PopOffsets in simple terms?

PopOffsets was a web-based, carbon offsetting project of Population Matters. In 2018 the project was superseded by Empower to Plan, a crowdfunding project for supporting family planning providers.

Why does PopOffsets matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study PopOffsets?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on PopOffsets.