New York City produces 1% of Nation's
Greenhouse Gasses
Green
house gases: New York City produces
nearly 1 percent of the nation's greenhouse
gas emissions - an amount that puts it
on par with Ireland or Portugal - according
to a city study.
The study, released Tuesday, was initiated
by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to assess the
city's progress in reducing its greenhouse
gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. It
was conducted by the mayor's Office of
Long-term Planning and Sustainability.
"You have to have a real baseline
or we're just talking past each other
as to what works and what doesn't work
- we won't ever know whether we really
made a difference,'' Bloomberg said.
The study found that the buildings, subways,
buses, cars and decomposition of waste
in America's most populous city produced
a net emission of 58.3 million metric
tons of greenhouse gases in 2005. The
report said the city's emissions "are
currently as much as those of Ireland
or Portugal."
The U.S. total was 7.26 billion metric
tons for that year.
Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide,
methane and other gases, essentially trap
energy from the sun, which warms the Earth's
surface and lower atmosphere. Many scientists
believe human activity that increases
those gases is contributing to global
warming.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, a United Nations network of 2,000
scientists, warned last week of possible
catastrophic risks such as floods, disease,
food shortages, species extinction and
human suffering throughout the world.
The city has 2.7 percent of the country's
population - 8.2 million of 300 million
- and the average New York City resident
contributes less than a third of the emissions
generated by a typical American. This
is largely due to the popularity of the
city's mass transit system, which cuts
down on car emissions, officials said.
The operation of the city's hundreds of
thousands of buildings - which consume
electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and
steam - contribute 79 percent of the city's
emissions total.
The study found that the city's focus
on environmentally friendly initiatives
- including alternative fuel vehicles,
energy efficient traffic lights and green
buildings - appears to have helped stabilize
emissions rates in recent years.
"Each one of these things really
does make a difference, and they add up,''
Bloomberg said.
Still, emissions were found to have increased
by more than 8 percent between 1995 and
2005, the study found.