Affirming that we are of this earth and that humankind has brought about global warming/climate change, Unitarian Universalists seek to engage in reverence for this earth and responsibility to it as we undertake these personal practices.
Personal Practices
- Reduce our use of energy and our consumption of manufactured goods
that become waste;
- Use alternative sources of energy to reduce global warming/climate
change and to encourage the development of such sources;
- Choose the most energy-efficient transportation means that meet our
needs and abilities (e.g., walk, bike, carpool, use mass transit and
communication technologies, and limit travel);
- Determine our personal energy consumption and pledge to reduce our
use of energy and carbon emissions by at least 20 percent by 2010 or
sooner and into the future;
- Reuse, recycle, and reduce waste;
- Plant and preserve trees and native plants and choose sustainably
harvested wood and wood products;
- Eat and serve energy-efficient food that is locally produced and
low on the food chain;
- Use financial resources to encourage corporate social responsibility
with reference to global warming/climate change;
- Model these practices by committing to a life of simplicity and Earth
stewardship;
- Consume less, choose appliances that are rated energy-efficient (e.g.,
by the EPA Energy Star Program), and choose products and materials that
are made from renewable resources and can be recycled at the end of
their usefulness; and
- Commit to continue to learn about the science, impact, and mitigation of global warming/climate change and communicate this knowledge by teaching about and discussing the problems and dangers of, and actions to address, climate change.
- Excerpt from Statement of Conscience: Threat of Global Warming/Climate Change (PDF) - adopted by the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (June 26, 2006)
Recycle Your Used Printer Cartridges Here
Next time you have an empty inkjet printer cartridge, don't throw it away. Just put it in a plastic bag or the original cartridge box and bring it to a Visalia UU Fellowship meeting. We will recycle it, and our Fellowship will receive up to $4 for each cartridge with a print head. (Sorry, Epson printer cartridges without print heads don't qualify.) Save energy! Reduce Pollution!
Cattle raised for beef cause more damage to planet than emissions from cars, report finds - Brief summary of a recent 400 page UN report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow.
The report notes that populations of sheep, chickens, pigs and goats are also damaging, but that the world's 1.5 billion cattle are the primary offenders. The fuel burned in the clearing of vegetation for grazing, the production of fertilizer for feed and the meat itself, and in the product's transportation is responsible for 9 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. While carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas, the flatulence and manure of cattle herds emit more than one-third of all methane, a greenhouse gas that warms the world 20 times faster than carbon dioxide. Livestock also produce ammonia, a primary cause of acid rain, along with more than 100 other gasses. Cattle emit 18 percent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, which beats out the emissions from all manner of transportation combined.
