Our Global Warming Project
Ongoing project that began January 2004
Our congregation has joined with three other local churches to make an impact
on the problem of global warming. As Unitarian-Universalists we want to put
our spiritual and ethical values into practice, affirming and promoting “Respect
for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”
We challenged our congregation to use the Global Warming WORKSHEET and see
where they could make permanent changes in their lifestyle to decrease fossil
fuel use. Our ‘modern’ lifestyle relies heavily on burning fossil
fuels to generate electricity and power our automobiles. As the fuels are burned,
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are emitted, gases that then trap
heat in the atmosphere and result in global warming (or global climate change
as it is increasingly called). We wanted to act together and measure our impact
in reducing these destructive greenhouse gases.
We hosted an ENERGY FAIR in January and an ENERGY AUDIT presentation in February.
In March we attended a presentation by Beth Nakusky, Maine’s Director
of Energy Independence and Security and in April we attended a TRANSPORTATION
FAIR that highlighted less destructive modes of transportation – hybrid
cars, Amtrak trains, the Zoom Bus, bikes, and so on.
We learned that everyday actions like driving less, washing clothes in cold
water, changing to compact fluorescent light bulbs, and replacing worn out
appliances with Energy Star energy-efficient models would make a significant
difference. Our WORKSHEET gave us a variety of options and indicated the carbon
dioxide savings from each.
As households in our congregation pledged to make changes to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions, we added up the totals and put symbolic flowers, apples
and leaves on our Global Warming Tree of Hope. It’s really blooming now!
We have pledges to reduce fossil fuel use sufficient to keep an absolutely
astounding 318,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out the atmosphere. That’s
318,000 pounds of carbon dioxide that can’t trap heat and contribute
to global climate change.
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HOW YOU CAN REDUCE CO2
EMISSIONS
WORKSHEET
This worksheet will help you to calculate
your energy savings.
Together we can reduce harmful
greenhouse gas emissions.
For More information about Global Warming
Union
of Concerned Scientists
www.ucsusa.org
EPA's global warming site with activities for kids
www.epa.gov/globalwarming/kids
Center for New American Dream
www.newdream.org
Environmental
Defense, one of the oldest and well respected environmental advocacy
groups.
www.environmentaldefense.org
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