Wednesday, August 27

SPELLING IT OUT: MEAT = CLIMATE DESTRUCTION

It's no revelation, but this new study puts its data points in good, media-friendly sound-bite form:

"Giving up meat could drastically reduce your carbon footprint, with meat-eaters' diets responsible for almost twice the emissions of those of vegetarians, a German study said on Tuesday. A diet with meat is responsible for producing in a year the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving a mid-sized car 4,758 kilometres (2,956 miles), the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IOeW) said. [PDF of study]

"But the food a vegetarian consumes in 12 months is responsible for generating the same emissions as driving 2,427 kilometres. Going vegan -- giving up meat and dairy products -- would cut the emissions released in making what you eat more than seven-fold, to the equivalent of driving 629 kilometres."

Some great international headlines:

  • Going vegan the way to reduce carbon footprint
  • 'The Cow Is a Climate Bomb'
  • Meat-eaters, the end is nigh

    Too bad that as of this writing the story has apparently not seen the light of day in any US media outlet. Shocking, huh?

    RELATED: Just prior to this study, E Magazine came out with a cover story on the topic: The Meat of the Matter:
    Our Livestock Industry Creates More Greenhouse Gas than Transportation Does

  • 1 comment:

    Anonymous said...

    "Too bad that as of this writing the story has apparently not seen the light of day in any US media outlet. Shocking, huh?"

    Not really that shocking. Just that most people don't care. I guess I don't. Reduce my "footprint" by half by not eating meat. Meh.

    How about if people want to reduce their carbon footprint, stop driving cars, stop air conditioning buildings, stop heating buildings/pools/hot tubs, turn off the lights, etc. But you will never see that happen either.

    Some things people just wanna do no matter what the cost.