Is your diet eating up the climate?

A new UK study measures and compares the dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat- and fish-eaters, vegetarians, and vegans.

The journal Climatic Change published the first-ever study which compares the dietary greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of real-life meat-eaters to those who abstain from meat or choose other sources of protein. While other studies have only used modeled estimates of reduced-meat diets, this study compared data on the actual diets of 2,041 vegans, 15,751 vegetarians, 8,123 fish-eaters, and 28, 589 meat-eaters.

They found that the highest dietary GHG emissions were found in meat-eating men and the lowest were found in vegan women ~ with high meat eaters producing 7.26kg of CO2e per day compared with just 2.94kg by vegans.

The meat-producing industry is a substantial contributor to GHG emissions by way of fossil fuels used to power farm machinery and to transport, store, and cook foods; methane from enteric fermentation in ruminant livestock; and nitrous oxide released by tilled and fertilized soils.

Repost ~ Cut your carbon  footprint in half by going vegetarian  | treehugger