Wow, it hit on about a third of the points we were looking at in a certain anthropology course lately..
Yeah, the whole leadin with the guy arrogantly "living the gringo fantasy" is just as ridiculous as they made it out to be. on the other hand, most of those "buy green stuff" initiatives are vaporware.
Carbon offsets? Go to the pocketbooks of a bunch of scammers in the third world. On occasion they stick a tree in the ground to make a show of things, but the tree generally dies. "We've planted an entire forest in San Holinwall!" Back in San Holinwall, "Some gringos showed up once. We showed them a field of brush and said we planted trees. they clapped a lot. We clearcutted it the week after."
Actually, most of the "We sent money to Lower Wherethefeckistan to do good things" programs are like that. It enriches some jaded opportunists in Wherethefeckistan without having any real output. Really the thing to do is just to cut back on your consumption and start using more used or repaired stuff. Cut back on your hours and learn to fix your own stuff. Quit buying stuff to make yourself feel better - you can't consume your way to a non-consumption - and start doing stuff on your own.