The UMC accepts global climate change as a matter of fact. You can read the UMC Social Principles here. We are in the third section.
The section on energy resource utilization is written with the assumption that global warming is real. I agree with this assessment. I state this because we live in a time when expertise has been mocked, ridicules and set in a place of disdain by much of the general public. If the information presented by people who actually do this crap as their life’s work doesn’t jive with what we believe or want to hear, then we just cast it aside and think we know better. We call it #FakeNews.
The portion of this section that struck me is this:
UMC Social Principles – Energy Resource Utilization
Everybody should adapt his or her lifestyle to the average consumption of energy that respects the limits of the planet earth. We encourage persons to limit CO2 emissions toward the goal of one tonne per person annually.
Why did this stick out? It made me take pause because I had absolutely no idea what my personal CO2 emissions were – commonly referred to as my carbon footprint. How much do I use? What is the average usage? What might I have to use in order to help stop climate change? I had no clue. I’ll bet you don’t either.
Fortunately, I did a little digging and, not surprisingly, there’s a website that can at least give you a general idea of your carbon footprint. If you follow this link, you can take a very short quiz to see where you stand. I was floored by my own results.
My average yearly carbon footprint is 8.6t, which is just a tad over the average for a person in the EU (8.4t). I’m not sure what the average person in the USA uses, but I’ll bet it’s pretty similar.
What is the amount myclimate.org says each person has to limit to in order to halt climate change? .600t. Yes, you read that right…just over 1/2t for a whole year. And I’m sitting at 8.6t just on my own…as is the average person. We are talking about billions of people. We have a giant problem, a problem that ain’t #FakeNews.
This is a big problem that requires real change in all of us. We may not have to deal with the fallout directly (though we are starting to), but future generations will.
