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.

EPA relised the final report "Analyses and Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems (SAP 4.6) "

Have you calculated your Carbon Footprint yet?

You want to know what Climate Change will likely bring here in USA? Click on the following link http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recordisplay.cfm?deid=197244
It will open the webpage with the announcement of the final Report relised by the EPA about how USA will be affected by Climate Change.
The following link will directly download the report for you.
http://oaspub.epa.gov/eims/eimscomm.getfile?p_download_id=475107
It is an interesting reading !

Very First Step - Calculate your CO2 footprint

A Carbon Footprint is a "measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gasses produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide" It is an useful measure meant to vision your impact on global warming.
To become Carbon Neutral you need to reach the value "Zero"

When I started "Think Green Act Clean" the first thing I did was to understand the size of my household CO2 footprint.

My carbon footprint at the moment is 16.7. It is still very high if you compare it to the German one, which is about 10 or the Italian one of about 8. When I started 1 year ago my carbon footprint was 18. It is not easy or quick, but when I see my results I feel I have the power to change something I thought was bigger than me. The most impressive feedback you have when you cut your CO2 footprint is that you actually SAVE MONEY too!!

(On this link you can find the everage procapita CO2 footprint of every country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita from 1990 up to 2004, LOOK FOR YOURS!)

In this blog I'll tell you what I did and what I will try to do and my progresses. Hope to reach 10 one day. Websites where you can calculate your footprint:

http://www.earthlab.com/ I like this because you can make pledges and it shows you the improvements of your footprints;
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html made from the EPA, which include your waste;
http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/ It’s more accurate because take in consideration in which state you live;

http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/carboncalculator.cfm It can be personal or of the all household;

and many more….. See the list with all the characteristic of each one and chose http://hes.lbl.gov/hes/carbon-calculators.html .


Start to use these tools and you will feel much better!

Climate Change made easy

As you know by now from TV, magazines, news, commercial etc, there is this little problem that Humanity is facing called Climate Change caused by Greenhouse Gasses.
It's very simple. Some gasses which are considered good for our earth, such as CO2, methane and many more, lately went out of balance and they became not so good. Those gasses form a barrier around our planet, which acts as the glass in a greenhouse. They let in the worm energy coming from the sun and at the same time they keep part of it from going back out, keeping our planet at a temperature where life can exist. Nowadays we are having too much of those greenhouse gasses so they are keeping too much heat on the earth. Every time we use energy from fossil fuels, or a forest is destroyed/burnt or a cow pass gasses (sounds funny, but this is the reality!), we emit more of the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and we reduce the ability to capture those gasses back by the plants. The temperature rise and the ice at the poles melt releasing even more CO2.
We have more frequent extreme weather conditions such as draught and flooding, hurricanes, etc (NOAA June 2008 report on “Effects of a Changing Climate on Extreme Weather Events in North America” http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080619_climatereport.html). With the draught we have more wildfires, which destroy more trees and release more CO2. It is a vicious cycle.

Some countries will have a warmer weather (we may have wine from England, we may be capable to go from Europe to America from the North Pole by boat), but the positive changes will not be able to offset the negative ones that will or are already appearing in many countries (USA included), with catastrophic life losses especially in the undeveloped and/or more populated ones (Asia and Africa). On top of the severe weather, our crops and forests, the base of every life cycle, will be affected, because the plants are the last one to migrate, as they do not have legs, fins or wings to migrate. We will experience a global scarcity of food, massive movement of people, more diseases, losses in wildlife species, etc.
Unfortunately Climatology is not a precise science yet and it’s still very difficult to predict exactly where and/or when we will have the negative effects and how intense they will be.
For example scientists were expecting North Pole to be melted in about 30 years, and now they predict will be melted for a short time already at the end of this summer 2008 and completely in a few years (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/weather/06/27/north.pole.melting/).
You may feel discouraged from all those news, but there is also a big good new: the scientists tell us we have some time, not too much, to reverse this trend, and we have the resources, the technology and the human ingenuity to succeed. They also tell us that it is not just a problem of governments and businesses. It is mostly a problem of each one of us. So let's try all together to preserve our beautiful earth for our children, grandchildren and future generations.

SmartWay: EPA new campaign on how to save money and reduce your footprint when shopping for your next car

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is launching the SmartWay Leaf Campaign to encourage consumers to purchase SmartWay-certified vehicles.
EPA scores vehicles according to their environmental impact. SmartWay-certified vehicles are the best environmental performers, as measured by a combination of their emission levels of greenhouse gases, hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides, and other pollutants. If every light duty vehicle in the country were SmartWay-certified, carbon dioxide emissions would decrease by about 214 billion pounds annually. That’s equivalent to the emissions from nearly 20 million vehicles each year.
The new campaign builds on the previous outreach efforts to inform drivers about ways they can save fuel and protect the environment, like the recent Alliance to Save Energy’s Drive $marter Challenge campaign launched this past May. Even with their current vehicle, there is a lot drivers can do to cut down on fuel use. It is important to maintain a reasonable speed and avoid rapid accelerations and braking. Vehicles should be well-maintained with properly inflated tires and clean air filters. Finally, try to decrease vehicle use by walking or biking, combining errands into one trip, and using public transportation where available. For more information about SmartWay, visit: http://www.epa.gov/smartway
To visit EPA’s green Vehicle Guide, go to: http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles
To learn about the Drive $marter Challenge, go to: http://www.drivesmarterchallenge.org/
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News Release: Thursday, July 3, 2008 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Driving the SmartWay: EPA Debuts New Campaign to Help Drivers Save Fuel, Money and Protect the Environment Contact Information: Marilyn Franklin, (202) 564-4355 / franklin.marilyn@epa.gov

Recepy Contest !!!

Look at the produce in season and submit an ealthy and sustainable recepy of the month. I'll write them on the blog so can be voted at the end of each month. The first will get an Award nomination on the blog. I invite you to partecipate to the Recepy Contest every month. Please specify for what month is the recepy you submit. E-mail the recepy to vanessa@keithandvanessa.com

Eating healthy and being sustainable go hand in hand.

It's well known that eating fresh produce daily it's good for your health. And now it's good for your environment too. According to Carnegie Mellon researchers Christopher L. Weber and H. Scott Matthews your diet impact tremendously on your CO2 household footprint. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing food impact more than how much the food travels. So the first thing to do is to eat less red meat and/or dairy products1. The alternative is to eat more grains and produce.
When you pick a fruit or a vegetable the vitamin content start to decay in a matter of a few ours. The more time the vegetable/fruit take to arrive from the farm to your table the less vitamin it contains. The most vulnerable vitamin is the vitamin C. The refrigeration may slow down the process, but not stop it.
The more the food is manipulated the less vitamin retains.
The freezing process is the best way to conserve some produces. In fact, the produce is frozen soon after the picking phase. There is a loss of vitamin B with the time and the use of a lot of energy.
Another good way of preserving food and its vitamins content is drying it. If conducted in a natural way, using sun and wind, is one of the oldest and also more carbon neutral way of preserving food.
The canned food has the least content of vitamins because is highly processed.
Now we also know that the CO2 footprint of a produce grow exponentially with the distance it travels and the processing/storing it undergoes.
At the end of the day, if you try to buy as much as you can local and unprocessed/unfrozen food you will take care of your health and of the environment. And you also save money, have less packaging to deal with, support the local economy and have the chance to get to know who works hard to provide food for you.
You can do even more with a little more effort. If you buy organic food and produce in season you cut on oil consumption because you promote food which has less, if none, pesticide (made with oil) and you cut on oil consumption to import food out of season.
If you are very dedicated and love to do some gardening you can be more carbon neutral by growing your own vegetables in a CSA farm (http://www.localharvest.org/csa/, http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agriculture) or in a community garden (http://www.civicgardencenter.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_garden) or even better in your back yard.
So keep an eye on the right column on the “Produce of the month” and give a look at the "Healthy food" links.
We are what we eat!
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1Carnegie Mellon University. "Want To Reduce Your Food-related Carbon Footprint? What You Eat Is More Important Than Where It Came From." ScienceDaily 22 April 2008. 1 July 2008 .