Get Your GreenBack Tompkins is among many groups that believe we are living in a time of “Climate Emergency,” where immediate and drastic action is needed.
Climate change science shows that increasing amounts of greenhouse gases--mostly carbon dioxide (CO2) released from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas--are trapping heat inside our planet’s thin atmospheric shell. Warming oceans and melting glaciers result in rising sea levels, imperiling the survival of coastal cities and low-lying island nations. Changing weather patterns have increased drought and heat waves in many parts of the world, and flooding in others. All of this is impacting humans and other living creatures, large and small, throughout the entire planet.
Social and economic injustice and extreme climate disruption are outcomes of the same inequitable and wasteful economic system. Business-as-usual treats people, especially people of color and those with limited material resources, and our living environment, as disposable.
“This situation, perhaps the biggest challenge ever faced by humanity as a whole, can lead to despair. This is not our approach.”
When advocates for environmental protection and champions for the elimination of poverty and racism work together to change the system that is trashing poor people and the planet, we will be able to create a strong, community-oriented local economy that works for all.
Four focus areas for a more just and ecologically sustainable world:
Average American carbon footprint is 21 tons. Source: UCS, 2012.
The chart above shows greenhouse gas emissions for a typical American individual, based on the analysis of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a non-profit science advocacy organization composed of private citizens and professional scientists in the United States. These figures account for emissions related to food, waste and the stuff we buy that take place further up the production chain and beyond local communities’ borders.
Individuals have direct control over a significant portion of these emissions. Emissions in the transportation sector are primarily from private vehicle use. According to recent NYSERDA figures, more than 93% of all vehicle miles travelled are from light duty gasoline vehicles and trucks and motorcycles [1]. If we add the emissions from personal transportation to the greenhouse gas emissions from residential energy use, we get more than half of the NY State’s total emissions.
Individuals also have significant control over how much organic waste goes to landfills, and make decisions about energy use in commercial buildings as well. As a result, individuals and organizations can make significant impacts by taking a step.
[1] NYSERDA, “New York State GreenHouse Gas Inventory: 1990-2016”. July 2019.