Greenhouse Gas Emissions Explored

Since we're big fans of the environment we wanted to have a better understanding of the things that create greenhouse gas emissions, not just in the U.S. but around the world.   We're experts in eco-friendly building materials but we're always striving to learn more about our environment and climate change.  This blog posting is a summary of what we've learned and we hope it brings more awareness to what we can do to combat climate change.  Most people understand that the burning of coal and oil creates a significant amount of our global greenhouse gas emissions.  But many people are unaware that things like deforestation and land clearing for agriculture make up a whopping 17% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions (in the form of carbon dioxide).  That's more than transportation (planes, trains, and automobiles) which makes up roughly 13% and not that far off energy supply (electricity creation) which constitutes nearly 26% of world's greenhouse gas emissions.  The other large contributing categories to world's greenhouse gas emissions includes industry at 19% and agriculture at 14%.   Emissions from industry mostly include fossil fuels burned on-site at facilities for energy needed for manufacturing.  While greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture primarily come from the management of agricultural soils, livestock, rice production, and biomass burning.

U.S. emissions statistics are a little different than the rest of the world.  The U.S. emissions are made up of electrical production 32%, transportation 28%, industry 20%, agriculture 10%, and commercial and residential 10%.  Commercial and residential greenhouse gas emissions are created by businesses and homes primarily from fossil fuels burned for heat, the use of certain products that contain greenhouse gases, and the handling of waste. It's obvious from the statistics there is a lot that can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.   By using eco-friendly building materials in our homes and businesses we can  impact all of the major categories of green house gas contributors.    For more information on greenhouse gas emissions please visit www.epa.gov