How You Can Help Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

There are many ways that you can help protect Point Reyes National Seashore by reducing your greenhouse gas emissions, whether it is by modifying lifestyle choices, by participating in community action, or contacting policymakers. Individual choices can have a dramatic impact on global climate change. Reducing your family's heat-trapping emissions does not mean forgoing modern conveniences; it means making smart choices and using energy-efficient products, which may require an additional investment up front, but often pay you back in energy savings within a couple of years. Since Americans' per capita emissions of heat-trapping gases is 5.6 tons—more than double the amount of western Europeans—we can all make choices that will greatly reduce our families' global warming impact.

Do you know what your "carbon foot" is? The Environmental Protection Agency has developed tools to help individuals and households reduce greenhouse gas emissions and take action, such as a Personal Emissions Calculator. This calculator provides an estimate of household greenhouse gas emissions resulting from household energy use and waste disposal, and it gives you information you can use to identify ways to reduce your personal greenhouse gases.

Click on a link below to find out how you can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

At home
Through Transportation Choices
As a citizen
As a consumer

The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit
In response to the President's Climate Action Plan (310 KB PDF) and Executive Order 13653 (325 KB PDF) to help the nation prepare for climate-related changes and impacts, U.S. federal government agencies, led by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Council on Environmental Quality, gathered resources that can help people take action to build their climate resilience. The impacts of climate change—including higher temperatures, heavier downpours, more frequent and intense droughts, wildfires, and floods, and sea level rise—are affecting communities, businesses, and natural resources across the nation. The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit provides scientific tools, information, and expertise to help people manage their climate-related risks and opportunities, and improve their resilience to extreme events. The site is designed to serve interested citizens, communities, businesses, resource managers, planners, and policy leaders at all levels of government.

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