What are “emissions?”
From the Earth Policy Institute In 2005, carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels climbed to a record high of 7.9 billion tons, an increase of some 3 percent from the previous year. Annual global emissions have been increasing since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century, when humans first began burning fossil fuels on a large scale to produce energy. Since the early 1900s, emissions have been rising at an increasingly rapid pace. Annual emissions have grown by a factor of fifteen since 1900, advancing nearly 3 percent a year over that time. http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/CO2/2006.htm

US Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Gas http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/facts_and_figures/us_emissions/usghgemgas.cfm

Emissions by Sector http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/facts_and_figures/us_emissions/usghgemsector.cfm

Why are emissions a problem now?
About 150-200years ago, carbon dioxide levels began to grow significantly however in the last 50 years, carbon dioxide levels have grown dramatically. The planet has a natural ability to absorb carbon emissions, but only to a point. The following charts demonstrate the unsustainable growth of emissions from various sources and emitters.

This chart shows the trends in US carbon dioxide emissions between 1990 and 2004. The data indicate that carbon dioxide emissions increased 15.8% between 1990 and 2004. http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/facts_and_figures/us_emissions/usghgemtrends.cfm

This chart shows the emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels in the generation of electric power. The three electricity-generating fuels shown here are coal, natural gas, and petroleum. http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/facts_and_figures/us_emissions/usco2elecpower.cfm

This figure shows trends in emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of oil to produce energy for the following five sectors: transportation, industry, electric power, residential, and commercial. http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/facts_and_figures/us_emissions/co2oil.cfm

The International Energy Annual (IEA) is the Energy Information Administration’s primary report of international energy statistics. For many series, data begin with the year 1980 and extend through 2005. Included are data on energy consumption and production; overviews of petroleum, natural gas, coal, and electricity, as well as carbon dioxide emissions from the use of fossil fuels, petroleum prices, energy reserves, and population ; and data unit conversion tables. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/iea/

What are the solutions?
“Big-picture” solutions start with the conservation of our natural resources, reduced consumption of fossil fuels, development of renewable sources of energy and in urging our elected officials to commit to these priorities. One of the biggest reductions in emissions will come in the increasing of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/fuel_economy/questions-and-answers-on-fuel-economy.html
Recently Congress passed and President Bush signed into law legislation that increases fuel efficiency for the first time in 30 years. However, these changes won’t go into effect until 2020 and only requires automakers to U.S boost fleetwide gas milage to 35 mpg. Unfortunately, that same legislation, the Clean Energy Act of 2007, did not include a national Renerable Energy Standard, which would have required energy suppliers to derive 15 percent of the energy they provided to consumers from renewable sources of energy like solar, geothermal and wind by the year 2020.

But what can I do?
There are lots of answers to what we as Episcopalians can do individually to reduce emissions. Numerous resources exist and apply to the many different contexts that we experience in our common life. Here are some answers from a variety of sources:

Our automobiles

From the Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/road.html

Our neighbors in the North offer some tips on how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from our cars http://www.climatechangesask.ca/html/individuals/On_Road/Reduce_CO2_Emissions/

Improve the fuel efficiency of your vehicle. Here is a list of tips from wikiHow, an online “how-to” manual. http://www.wikihow.com/Increase-Fuel-Mileage-on-a-Car

Started by then nine-year old Savannah Walters, Pump 'Em Up! is a fuel conservation call to all over the world to spread the word to drivers that the power to conserve fuel is in their own tires! Pump 'Em Up! was born in 2001 Savannah, concerned by proposals to drill for oil in the Arctic, learned that the U.S. could save as much oil as would be produced by the new drilling if drivers simply pumped up their car tires to proper inflation levels. In 1995 the US Energy Department said that under-inflated tires waste an estimated 4 million gallons of gas daily in America. http://www.pumpemup.org/

Learn more about the impacts of our cars on our health and the environment http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/vehicles_health/

Our homes

The Environmental Protection Agency offers 9 tips for your home. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/home.html

Reduce your carbon output with Compact Florescent Light bulbs (CFL) If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls

Do an energy audit of your home Developed by the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory http://hes.lbl.gov/

Our places of employment

Suggestions from the Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/office.html

http://www.resourcesaver.org/file/toolmanager/O16F22121.pdf