Friday, July 18, 2008

EPA inventory - U.S. Greenhouse gas emissions and sinks

Before starting our journey in reducing our personal greenhouse gasses emission, I want to show you where and how much of this greenhouse gasses are emitted in USA. My point of view is that we should reduce first as much as possible the biggest source of greenhouse gasses in the less expensive way. Our goal should be to have the fastest and more evident impact without empty our wallets and disrupting our way of life or make things too complicated.
According to the last Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse gas emissions and sinks: 1990-2006, released on April 2008 (USEPA #430-R-08-005) http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/usinventoryreport.html (Fast facts card http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads/2008_GHG_Fast_Facts.pdf), we can easily get the idea that the biggest emission of greenhouse gasses comes from Electric Power Industry because most of it is generated from burning Coal. In second place we have Transportation, which uses Petroleum. Following we have Industry, then Agriculture, Commercial, Residential.
But if we distribute the Energy consumption for each compartment we see that the order change. First we have Industry, followed by Transportation, Commercial, Residential, and Agriculture.
So until we will have a renewable energy source (solar, wind, geothermal, etc), which will decrease our dependence on fossil fuel (coal, petroleum), we will need as much as we can to reduce our Energy and Petroleum consumption.
What we should expect from Government, Transportation, Industry, Commercial and Agriculture is a big investment in research and the incentive to use solar, wind, geothermal and renewable green energy sources. The implementation of public transportation, which uses clean energy, is fundamental. We also need to improve and protect what we call greenhouse gasses natural sinks such as forest, oceans, soil, and grassland so they can reabsorb part of the greenhouse gasses emissions. Investments in research of new technology such as carbon sequestration, regenerative agriculture and so on are a must.
Meanwhile as consumer we are expected to reduce fossil fuel energy use and start to recycle and reuse. We can also invest money in green solutions and research, if our budget allows us to do so. I have a huge confidence in the human creativity and ingenuity and cooperation.

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