Beginning in 2020, United offers a Carbon Offset Program to members and friends. How that works for those who participate is explained on the separate sheet, UCSF Carbon Offset Program. What follows here is the broader context of which this program is part and which it addresses.

     There is overwhelming international consensus that we, the planet’s people, must lower our carbon emissions in order to stave off climate calamity. The goal of both the Paris Climate Agreement (195 nations) and the Energy Transition Act of the State of New Mexico is carbon neutrality by 2050.

     While all of us can lower our carbon footprint, our present way of life precludes anyone achieving zero emissions. The Carbon Offset Program is a modest effort to address the gap between our current emissions and the goal of zero emissions.

     This program belongs to an array of Environmental Ministry/Desert Faith efforts by United. Some examples:

 

• A 42-panel solar carport that generates carbon-free electricity for 100% of the church’s annual need (and saves $3600 – 4800 in annual utility bills); • LED lights everywhere, including the full parking lot;

• Replaced or repaired windows in the Sanctuary and the children’s Nurture Center as well as energy efficient windows in the new Education Wing;

• Enrollment in the Energy Star Portfolio Manager, a software that allows us to track monthly and annual energy use and locate inefficiencies; • Worship that incorporates Earth-honoring and Desert Faith prayers, litanies, music, and scripture (since 1987);

• Education opportunities for children, youth and adults that incorporate United’s commitment to “Love Creation” along with love for God and Neighbor.

• A new foam roof, with maximum insulation capability and pitched for water harvesting, channeling rain and melt water from the 13,797 sq. ft. of roof area into four 8,000 gallon cisterns that provide water for the Desert Faith landscaping project;

• 274 trees and 541 shrubs, many of which are new plantings, sequester ca. 8.97 tons of CO2 annually on the 3.429 acres of church grounds.

 

     While there is more to the congregation’s Environmental Ministry, the significant fact is that from the time we entered the GreenFaith Certification Program for houses of worship (2012) to the present we have reduced carbon emissions 40%. (Incidentally, none of the money given to the Offset Program stays with United. 100% goes to the recipients who do the on-the-ground work of carbon offsetting.)

     The broader context is grim, even in New Mexico. The Energy Transition Act is law. Yet in 2018 state oil and gas revenues made up 32% of the state’s general fund revenues with a record high of $2.2 billion. Furthermore, the Permian Basin is slated to become the largest source of oil and gas in the country. And while most of the basin is in Texas, the richest reserves are believed to be in New Mexico. This effective commitment to fossil fuels has led to an “all of the above” state energy policy (both renewable and non-renewable sources).

     New Mexico joins Alaska, North Dakota, and Wyoming as the top four states whose fiscal revenue is as least 20% from natural resource extraction. This is sometimes referred to as the “resource curse” because the reliance on resource revenues seems to correlate with poor economic performance. Most recent state rankings for economy places Alaska at 46th, North Dakota at 35th, Wyoming at 42nd, and New Mexico at 47th. (For countries rather than states, the International Monetary Fund has long noted a correlation of rich natural resources and economies with high levels of poverty and poor performance—the “resource curse”.)

     Internationally, nations are falling far short of the Paris Climate Agreement goal of holding global warming to 1.5 degrees C. above pre-industrial levels. We are presently at 1 degree above and have already seen more intense storms, including hurricanes and flooding rains, more wildfires that are more intense and over a longer season, sea level rise and ocean acidification, severe loss of biodiversity and the onset of a mass extinction event, etc. What the planet would be with a rise at our present pace – 2, 3 or 4 degrees – is simply a different Earth, well beyond the climate stability that has made possible the human civilizations of the last 10,000 – 12,000 years. All this makes carbon offsets of all kinds, and carbon reduction, imperative.

     United Church of Santa Fe Environmental Task Force (Larry Rasmussen, Mary Roessel, Joe Neidhart, Pam Homer, Scott Wagner. Staff: Sr. Minister Talitha Arnold