Virtually everything we do has an unavoidable impact on the planet in some way, if you trace the line far enough.

Even if you're using solar-generated electricity to power your computer to read this article, your computer will still have used energy to produce, and to ship to you, and those solar cells had to be made too. Like we said, it's unavoidable--but anything you can do to help is commendable.

Carbon offsetting works on this principle. Even if you drive the cleanest hybrid on the road, you're still using gas, and emitting greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. A new mobile application, DriveLite, now allows you to carbon-offset your journeys.

With the app, you can offset as little or as much carbon dioxide emissions from your journey as you like.

DriveLite uses its resources to absorb as much carbon as your car will emit over a journey, allowing you to offset those emissions. When every gallon of fuel burned emits 20 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere, that's a lot of greenhouse gas.

Technically, you could even offset the carbon emissions of a Hummer... though we're obliged to remind you that carbon offsetting doesn't account for the other pollutants generated by cars, nor does it magically fill up oil reserves, so perhaps the best candidates will be those who already have fuel-efficient cars--it's a way of making your journeys just a little bit greener.

You can find out more on DriveLite via the app's website or Facebook page, and the app is available on the iTunes store, Android Market or Amazon.

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