The nearly 500,000 visitors to the Pennsylvania Farm Show will learn how individuals can take simple measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat the growing threat of climate change.

A new exhibit from the Department of Environmental Protection will ask visitors, “What’s your carbon footprint?” The exhibit is featured in the Farm Show Complex Main Hall and it features comically drawn farm animals in everyday human situations to highlight steps people can take to reduce their impact on the environment.

According to DEP Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty, the aggregate efforts of individuals can have a dramatic effect in mitigating an increasingly worrisome problem.

“Climate change is one of the most important environmental protection issues of our time,” said McGinty. “Almost everything about the world around us—from our infrastructure to our economy—is based on a consistent climate. The faster-than-normal rise in temperatures over the last century has led to changes in weather patterns, drought, soil erosion and it has affected countless species.

“There’s little doubt that further consequences will emerge that we have yet to comprehend fully, and many of those consequences may prove irreversible, unfortunately. That’s why it’s so important to act now and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Because these gases may persist for the next century, the actions we take—or fail to take—today will have a profound affect on the world our children and future generations live in.

“If each of us takes a few simple steps to reduce the amount of pollution for which we’re responsible, then we can preserve our plant’s health and our way of life for generations to come,” she said.

Included in the exhibit is an “energy hog,” who is asleep in his living room where the television on, the air conditioning running and a window is open; a freshly shorn sheep who chooses to wear a sweater rather than keep the thermostat on high during a cold day; and a group of barnyard animals avoiding rush hour traffic by carpooling through the HOV lane.

Visitors to the exhibit also can calculate their individual carbon emissions using a carbon footprint calculator, and then receive tips for reducing their impact.

The new Main Floor exhibit replaces the retired Riverwalk Environmental Trail diorama, which is now on display in the Environmental Education Center at DEP’s central Harrisburg office in the Rachel Carson State Office Building.

DEP also will host an exhibit at the Farm Show’s Renewable Energy section located in the Expo Hall. Staff of DEP’s Office of Energy & Technology Deployment will be on hand to answer questions about clean energy and biofuels, as well as Governor Rendell’s Energy Independence Strategy.

The Pennsylvania Farm Show runs January 5-12 at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg.

1/4/2008