The other day a friend was watching my 3-year-old son. When I picked him up she said "Matthew said something about '...and take good care of the Earth because it is out home, to live lives full of goodness and love' What was that?" I explained they were the Unison Chalice Lighting words we say at church every Sunday. While I doubt Matthew knows what "take good care of the Earth because it is our home" means, it's clear to me that our congregation does.

I'm pleased there has been so much interest in the 2-year UU study-action initiative about global warming. Thank you to all the families who have been participating in the Carbon Emission Reduction Program.

Here's what we did: in September, several families tracked their gasoline, electricity, natural gas usage and airline miles. We plugged our numbers into a Carbon Calculator and found that participating families generated on average 1.4 tons of carbon per month. The range was from 0.4 to 2.8 tons.

Obviously, 1 month of data isn't enough to tell us what we're generating on average, so many of us are going to keep tracking our usage over the next year. The goal of the program was to take a look at our activities that resulted in carbon emissions and look for ways to reduce them through no-cost, low-cost or investment-grade energy efficiency measures.

This is a very aware congregation. People are doing a lot already: Compact Fluorescent Lamps, double paned windows, programmable thermostats to keep the house at 68 degrees in the winter. And we're going to look for further things we can do. If you are interested in efficiency ideas or rebates, PG&E has a great website.

But at a certain point, we may feel we've done all we can. This is where the concept of carbon neutral comes in. Planting trees is one option to absorb carbon emissions. One tree absorbs 1 ton of carbon over a 40 year time span. My family will need to plant 16 trees per year to offset our carbon output.

I would like to find a way to plant oak trees in the Bay Area since they are a native species. If anyone knows how to go about this, please let me know.

Conserving energy seems like a small thing but there are so many far-reaching benefits. By reducing our energy usage and talking it up to others we help:
- improve air quality
- reduce the incidence of respiratory illness
- slow down climate change
- reduce our dependence on foreign oil

Planting trees to offset our emissions helps to:
- absorb carbon
- reduce soil erosion
- regulate water flow
- maintain water quality

Mark Twain said "People are so interested in the future because that is where they will spend the rest of their lives." I'm proud to be a part of a congregation that cares so much about the environment that we inhabit and that sustains us.