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    Carbon Footprint Letter

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    vinformation
    This document discusses the urgent need to address climate change as expressed by both the Earth Charter and Pope Francis. It notes that climate change represents one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and calls for prayers and international cooperation towards an agreement at the upcoming UN Climate Change Summit to set attainable targets and strategies. It also discusses the concept of an ecological footprint and carbon footprint to assess human demand on natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions. The document encourages individuals to reflect on ways to lighten their carbon footprint and support projects that reduce emissions through carbon offsets. Overall, it conveys an optimistic yet serious tone about the importance of collective action to address climate change in line with our faith and duty to care for our common home, Earth.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Carbon Footprint Letter

    Uploaded by

    vinformation
    193 views2 pages
    This document discusses the urgent need to address climate change as expressed by both the Earth Charter and Pope Francis. It notes that climate change represents one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and calls for prayers and international cooperation towards an agreement at the upcoming UN Climate Change Summit to set attainable targets and strategies. It also discusses the concept of an ecological footprint and carbon footprint to assess human demand on natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions. The document encourages individuals to reflect on ways to lighten their carbon footprint and support projects that reduce emissions through carbon offsets. Overall, it conveys an optimistic yet serious tone about the importance of collective action to address climate change in line with our faith and duty to care for our common home, Earth.

    Original Description:

    Sisters of Charity of Halifax - Carbon Footprint Letter

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    This document discusses the urgent need to address climate change as expressed by both the Earth Charter and Pope Francis. It notes that climate change represents one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and calls for prayers and international cooperation towards an agreement at the upcoming UN Climate Change Summit to set attainable targets and strategies. It also discusses the concept of an ecological footprint and carbon footprint to assess human demand on natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions. The document encourages individuals to reflect on ways to lighten their carbon footprint and support projects that reduce emissions through carbon offsets. Overall, it conveys an optimistic yet serious tone about the importance of collective action to address climate change in line with our faith and duty to care for our common home, Earth.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    193 views2 pages

    Carbon Footprint Letter

    Uploaded by

    vinformation
    This document discusses the urgent need to address climate change as expressed by both the Earth Charter and Pope Francis. It notes that climate change represents one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and calls for prayers and international cooperation towards an agreement at the upcoming UN Climate Change Summit to set attainable targets and strategies. It also discusses the concept of an ecological footprint and carbon footprint to assess human demand on natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions. The document encourages individuals to reflect on ways to lighten their carbon footprint and support projects that reduce emissions through carbon offsets. Overall, it conveys an optimistic yet serious tone about the importance of collective action to address climate change in line with our faith and duty to care for our common home, Earth.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    We stand at a critical moment in Earths history, a time when humanity must

    choose its future


    Earth Charter Preamble
    The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all.
    Pope Francis, Laudato Si (23)
    Climate is a common good, and Pope Francis also indicates that climate change
    represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day. It is a global
    problem with grave implications including environmental, social, economic, political
    and for the distribution of goods. Laudato Si (25)
    We know and have known for some time that the cries and urgencies of our
    common home, Earth, call us to continuous actions for the sake of generations of
    life to follow us. In what ways can we respond?
    One way is to pray for the 40,000 participants including world leaders,
    environmental groups, religious groups and NGOs who will be in Paris for the UN
    Climate Change Summit from Nov 30- Dec 11. Let us pray fervently for an allencompassing breakthrough to an international resolve and agreement that
    embraces attainable targets, innovative strategies to mitigate global warming.
    In addressing the challenges of climate change, one popular tool of assessment is our
    ecological footprint which compares human demand with Earths limited ecological
    capacity. Today, as we may already know, the rate of consumption in North America
    alone exceeds Earths sustainability. Another way this has been expressed is that, if
    everyone on Earth lived how North Americans live it would take approximately three
    Earths to sustain us all. We might ask ourselves what message this tells us about
    enough?
    Carbon footprint is a subset of our ecological footprint. It tries to assess the
    greenhouse gases (C02) we emit by examining such things as our energy use in
    transportation, household, food, clothing, water use and so forth. It includes the
    activities that create C02 gases and also those that can help lighten our C02 impact.
    Both factor into the equation of our carbon footprint.

    Click here for carbon footprint strategy for lightening our own footprint. We invite
    you to reflect on it and to respond creatively to any new challenges that it may offer
    you and/or your household. Sharing the many solutions to address the challenges
    before us can help empower us all.
    Another way to reduce carbon footprint is to purchase carbon offsets. Individuals and
    institutions purchase offsets from organizations who then invest this money into
    projects that reduce C0 emissions.1
    2

    We all know that humankind must make significant reductions in C02 emissions in
    order to address the global problem of climate change. The problem will not go
    away soon, but lets not lose hope. Even now we sense an air of optimism as leaders
    gather for the Summit in Paris. And our own faith as Christians impels us to respond
    with countless acts of love for Earth, and for a hoped-for future.
    Quoting John Paul II, Pope Francis writes:
    If the simple fact of being human moves people to care for the environment of which
    they are a part, Christians in their turn realize that their responsibility within creation,
    and their duty towards nature and the Creator, are an essential part of their faith.
    Laudato Si (64)
    In faith let us do all we can to collaborate and work together for the good of our
    common home.

    1 The David Suzuki Foundation www.davidsuzuki.org has a lengthy guide for


    consumers, businesses and organizations re: purchasing offsets. Carbon offsetting
    is essentially a service: a purchaser pays someone else to create greenhouse
    reductions by planting trees, creating wind farms, doing landfill gas recovery and
    others. High quality carbon offsets create real reductions in greenhouse gas
    emissions while minimizing other related environmental concerns. The Suzuki guide
    uses key offset quality criteria. They also look for a vendors transparency on their
    website and the extent to which they provide the public with credible information
    about climate change and solutions.

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