I personally don't like Bitcoin's current position in the environmental debate. We're calling the "other side" uninformed. The strongest argument is that Bitcoin enables/stimulates the consumption of energy from sources that wouldn't have been accessible otherwise. It's a weak position.

I feel like if the world knew in real-time how many lightning transactions were happening (not hops, actual economic activity), then they would add that number to L1 transactions, and then divide that by the total energy consumption. I would expect this number, this energy-per-transaction, to get better and better over time.

Could we do better?

If a LN transaction is currently cheaper than a master card transaction by an order of magnitude, could one of these ideas have merit?

ie, "Plant a tree, get a free LN transaction"

The idea to route profits to a noble cause, to offset environmental damage isn't novel. Companies do it all the time. I'm trying to think of a way Bitcoin could do it.