Let me be as precise as I can. USPIRG (United States Public Interest Research Group) has issued a report that shows greenhouse gas emissions have doubled in 28 states between 1960 and 2001. That’s DOUBLED. As in increased by 100% or more.
An excerpt from the Executive Summary of the USPIRG report follows below the fold.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions Are Booming
• Between 1960 and 2001, U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide almost doubled, jumping from 2.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 1960 to almost 5.7 billion metric tons in 2001, an increase of 95 percent.
• In the 1990s, carbon dioxide emissions grew more quickly than in the 1970s and 1980s, increasing steadily at an average rate of 1.5 percent each year. The Energy Information Administration estimates that emissions grew by 1.7 percent in 2004, increasing to almost 6.0 billion metric tons.
• Regionally, carbon dioxide emissions rose most rapidly in the Southeast and Gulf South between 1960 and 2001, increasing by 163 percent and 175 percent, respectively.
• Among the states, Texas ranked first in the nation for the highest emissions of carbon dioxide in 2001, releasing 12 percent of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions. In 1960, Texas emitted 240.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide; by 2001, the state’s emissions had grown to 668.5 million metric tons, an increase of 178 percent.
• Twenty-eight (28) states more than doubled their carbon dioxide emissions between 1960 and 2001. The 10 states that experienced the largest overall increases in emissions in this period include Texas, Florida, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Missouri, and Arizona.
I’ve got nothing to add.
I’m glad this story is on the front page. A story like it should be there every day until greenhouse gasses are on the decline.
After seeing Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” I was actually shamed into taking the bus. And it’s been a great experience. I can sleep, read, watch something on my laptop, listen to music, or interact with my fellow passengers. I’ve done all of the above since I started.
I love Europe, and how light and heavily rail tracks crisscross most of the country. You don’t need a car in major cities. I love that some are designed for pedestrians, not cars, such as the circle area in Vienna (surely one of the most beautiful cities in the world.)
As Al Gore said at the end of the film, there were lots of ways we can help, and some of them are small. Driving less is one of them. Taking less small trips that could be combined into a big one.
Americans are all about freedom, including the freedom to drive whatever, and whenever, we feel. But is it so hard to change just one little thing in your life? I haven’t given up my car. I will drive it after work. But I found one small way to contribute. I’d love to hear what others are doing.
Thanks for this diary.
Mrs. K.P. recently bought a used hybrid – On Ebay, no less! She had to fly from here to Rhode Island to pick it up. She hadn’t driven a stick since she was a teenager, and thought it would be no big deal, like riding a bicycle – you never forget. Right? Not so much, LOL.
Two nights later she made it back to East Tennessee, but she did stop to see our older son in college along the way. (Perhaps because he knows how to drive a stick?)
After seeing Gore’s movie I replaced several light bulbs with compact fluorescents. Which didn’t seem to work unless they were right-side-up in the socket (i.e., they didn’t work if horizontal). Is that something with me, my particular bulbs, or what? Anyone run into this problem? (I was going to put some into bedroom ceiling light fixtures.)
May be your particular bulbs, KP. I wound up with a pack of 3, and currently one of them is horizontal in the bedroom, one’s base-up in the kitchen, and one’s base-down over my desk. They all work fine.
Are those the kind that can screw into regular lightbulb fixtures? I should check that out. Are they much more expensive? How long do they last?
<breathe, Lisa….> <G>
(and these are a couple of inches longer than conventional bulbs, so you’ve got to take into account whether they’ll fit into the fixtures. Fortunately for me the only one that didn’t was the kitchen, and I’m one of those bachelor types who just doesn’t much care. I put a plastic bag over the glass shade and stuck it in the cabinet and just use the bare bulb. Those who have social lives, visitors, or concern for aesthetics may wish to find a different solution.)
This seems to confirm the move of manufacturing from the rust belt to the southern states. The price paid is a tremendous increase in emissions for those “beneficiary” states. I would assume increases in mercury too.
I would assume increases in mercury too.
You’d be correct.
More here and here.
EPA new rules on mercury being contested:
Thanks for the link to the report. Lots of good information in there. Worth going to see just to check out the graphs and ponder them…
Thanks for the diary and the informative graph. Plus the link.