Millville Meeting: Carbon Neutral

At the advice of the Climate Action Network, Millville Meeting spent several Adult First Day sessions learning about the science of climate change. Marianna Wood presented a very thorough analysis of the current situation in the world. The Meeting then spent a session deciding what kinds of actions might be called forth. A committee was formed that came back to the Meeting with a the proposition that the Meeting needs to join the "carbon neutral" movement. This proposition was adopted, with joy by the Monthly Meeting.

Basically: the Meeting calculates how much carbon based fuel it consumes in a year, and then joins one of the many organizations dedicated to creating alternative energy sources that take an equal amount of carbon out of the environment. Such an offset is determined by some complex caluculations provided by the carbon neutral organization.

Millville Meeting has decided to support www.nativeenergy.com in providing methane digesters to be used in dairy farms in Lancaster County, to convert cow manure to methane and compost. In the process of providing clean energy, waste is also removed from the Chesapeake Bay.

A double bonus in this project is that Native Energy is given carbon pollution credits that they will retire, rather than sell to another company for use in polluting the atmosphere.

It is hoped that individual families will join the Meeting in this project, and that other Meetings and the Yearly Meeting will also become carbon neutral. As one Friend so eloquently spoke about this: "It took Quakers many years to listen to John Woolman about the need to give up their slaves, but they finally did. At some point it was decided that Quakers would not own slaves. Perhaps it is time for Quakers to give up their carbon!"

To read about Native Energy, and the methane digester project, and to calcualate your use of carbon, go to www.nativeenergy.com.