Why don’t environmental groups advocate climate-friendlier diets?
Which Diets Have the Lowest Carbon Footprint?
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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
In what “was arguably the largest ever environmental protest in the world,” more than a million children, across more than a hundred countries, joined a “Global Climate March, demanding that governments act…” “The concerns of the young protesters are justified” and “supported by the best available science,” wrote a group of scientists and scholars. The enormous mobilization shows that young people have at least understood the situation, and “we strongly support their demand for rapid and forceful action.”
In terms of our food supply, there are all sorts of little tweaks, like feed additives that can reduce cattle belching, but put all those tweaks together, according to the prestigious EAT-Lancet Commission, and we’re only talking about reducing agricultural greenhouse-gas emissions in 2050 by about 10 percent; whereas, if we instead switched over to plant foods, we “could reduce emissions by up to 80 percent.”
All those cow, sheep, and goat burps only represent a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture; so, that’s why according to the IPCC, the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, becoming a so-called climate carnivore, just cutting down on ruminant products like beef, wouldn’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as eating a healthier diet and limiting meat across the board. And, the fewer animal products the better.
“Which diet has the least environmental impact on our planet?” A systematic review found that eating completely plant-based may be “the optimal diet for the environment.” But it’s not all or nothing. Even just cutting down on meat to under an ounce or two a day could get you half the way there in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of land use, a healthier diet, like a Mediterranean diet, may decrease your footprint by about a quarter, whereas even more plant-based diets can drop land use 50 percent or more.
In general, diets that include meat require about three times more water, 13 times more fertilizer, more than twice the energy, and 40 percent more pesticides than those that don’t. If you look even broader at the total environmental impact of omnivorous versus vegetarian versus vegan diets, looking not just at global warming, but ocean acidification, agricultural run-off, smog, ecotoxicity of the water and soil, and direct human toxicity of the air we breathe and the water we drink, and the soil we grow our food from, eating eggs and dairy may be nine times worse than plants. And, eating eggs, dairy, and meat may be 17 times worse than sticking to plant foods. Oh, and as a bonus, we could feed an additional 350 million Americans, like an entire extra country’s worth of people—more than if we eliminated food waste completely.
Changing meat-eating habits would seem to be a relatively cheap and easy way to mitigate climate change, in contrast to many other factors outside our control. However, surveys suggest few seem to recognize this option of eating less meat as a significant opportunity for helping. Research has shown that consumers often underestimate the impacts of meat consumption on the environment in general, and on climate change in particular. “The outstanding effectiveness of the less meat option (as established by climate experts) was recognized by… [only] 6 percent of [Americans sampled,],” and that’s after they were prompted to assume climate change is actually happening.
“There is an overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real and that we’re driving it,” but only about half of U.S. adults believe it. This is not by coincidence. Just like the tobacco industry tried to subvert the overwhelming evidence that smoking caused cancer, companies like “Exxon orchestrated climate change denial campaign[s] that stalled meaningful efforts… for decades.”
Certainly, environmental groups should know better, though. “None of the highest profile NGOs examined” appeared to want to feature the link between meat consumption and climate change. They were all aware of the evidence, of course, but evidently the science alone was not sufficient. It’s like another form of denialism that can become like a negative feedback loop, where it’s not popular to talk about, so you don’t talk about it, so it remains not popular to talk about, depriving the issue of the attention that it needs to break out.
And when they have messaged about it, environmental groups have tended to favor just asking for a moderate reduction in meat consumption––notable given the research demonstrating how much more powerful a lever it could be at the individual level to go even further. But, they don’t want to be seen as telling people what to do––instead advocating for small changes, like turning off your computer monitor at lunchtime or printing double-sided. But, “the cumulative impact of large numbers of individuals making [just] marginal improvements in their environmental impact” may end up constituting just a marginal collective improvement. Yet, we now live at a time when we need to make urgent and ambitious changes.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Isaacs D. Climate change: Whose responsibility?. J Paediatr Child Health. 2019;55(6):615-616.
- Hagedorn G, Kalmus P, Mann M, et al. Concerns of young protesters are justified. Science. 2019;364(6436):139-140.
- Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet. 2019;393(10170):447-492.
- Hawatt H. Including animal to plant protein shifts in climate change mitigation policy: a proposed three-step strategy. Clim Policy. 2019;19(5):533-41.
- Climate change and land. Summary for policymakers. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2019.
- Chai BC, van der Voort JR, Grofelnik K, Eliasdottir HG, Klöss I, Perez-Cueto FJA, Chai BC, van der Voort JR, Grofelnik K, Eliasdottir HG, et al. Which diet has the least environmental impact on our planet? A systematic review of vegan, vegetarian and omnivorous diets. Sustainability. 2019;11:4110.
- Patz JA, Frumkin H, Holloway T, Vimont DJ, Haines A. Climate change: challenges and opportunities for global health. JAMA. 2014;312(15):1565-80.
- Aleksandrowicz L, Green R, Joy EJ, Smith P, Haines A. The Impacts of Dietary Change on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Land Use, Water Use, and Health: A Systematic Review. PLoS ONE. 2016;11(11):e0165797.
- Turner-McGrievy GM, Leach AM, Wilcox S, Frongillo EA. Differences in environmental impact and food expenditures of four different plant-based diets and an omnivorous diet: results of a randomized, controlled intervention. J Hunger Environ Nutr. 2016;11(3):382-95.
- Baroni L, Berati M, Candilera M, Tettamanti M. Total Environmental Impact of Three Main Dietary Patterns in Relation to the Content of Animal and Plant Food. Foods. 2014;3(3):443-460.
- Shepon A, Eshel G, Noor E, Milo R. The opportunity cost of animal based diets exceeds all food losses. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2018;115(15):3804-3809.
- de Boer J, Schosler H, Boersema JJ. Climate change and meat eating: an inconvenient couple? J Environ Psychol. 2013;33:1-8.
- De boer J, De witt A, Aiking H. Help the climate, change your diet: A cross-sectional study on how to involve consumers in a transition to a low-carbon society. Appetite. 2016;98:19-27.
- Gross L. Confronting climate change in the age of denial. PLoS Biol. 2018;16(10):e3000033.
- Laestadius LI, Neff RA, Barry CL, et al. Meat consumption and climate change: the role of non-governmental organizations. Clim Change. 2013;120:25-38.
- Laestadius LI, Neff R, Barry CL, Frattaroli S. "We don't tell people what to do": an examination of the factors influencing NGO decisions to campaign for reduced meat consumption in light of climate change. Glob Environ Change. 2014;29:32-40.
- Laestadius LI, Neff RA, Barry CL, Frattaroli S. No meat, less meat, or better meat: understanding NGO messaging choices intended to alter meat consumption in light of climate change. Environ Commun. 2016;10(1):84-103.
- Thøgersen J, Crompton T. Simple and painless? The limitations of spillover in environmental campaigning. J Consum. 2009;32:141-63.
- McMichael AJ, Powles JW, Butler CD, Uauy R. Food, livestock production, energy, climate change, and health. Lancet. 2007;370(9594):1253-63.
Video production by Glass Entertainment
Motion graphics by Avocado Video
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
In what “was arguably the largest ever environmental protest in the world,” more than a million children, across more than a hundred countries, joined a “Global Climate March, demanding that governments act…” “The concerns of the young protesters are justified” and “supported by the best available science,” wrote a group of scientists and scholars. The enormous mobilization shows that young people have at least understood the situation, and “we strongly support their demand for rapid and forceful action.”
In terms of our food supply, there are all sorts of little tweaks, like feed additives that can reduce cattle belching, but put all those tweaks together, according to the prestigious EAT-Lancet Commission, and we’re only talking about reducing agricultural greenhouse-gas emissions in 2050 by about 10 percent; whereas, if we instead switched over to plant foods, we “could reduce emissions by up to 80 percent.”
All those cow, sheep, and goat burps only represent a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture; so, that’s why according to the IPCC, the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, becoming a so-called climate carnivore, just cutting down on ruminant products like beef, wouldn’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as eating a healthier diet and limiting meat across the board. And, the fewer animal products the better.
“Which diet has the least environmental impact on our planet?” A systematic review found that eating completely plant-based may be “the optimal diet for the environment.” But it’s not all or nothing. Even just cutting down on meat to under an ounce or two a day could get you half the way there in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of land use, a healthier diet, like a Mediterranean diet, may decrease your footprint by about a quarter, whereas even more plant-based diets can drop land use 50 percent or more.
In general, diets that include meat require about three times more water, 13 times more fertilizer, more than twice the energy, and 40 percent more pesticides than those that don’t. If you look even broader at the total environmental impact of omnivorous versus vegetarian versus vegan diets, looking not just at global warming, but ocean acidification, agricultural run-off, smog, ecotoxicity of the water and soil, and direct human toxicity of the air we breathe and the water we drink, and the soil we grow our food from, eating eggs and dairy may be nine times worse than plants. And, eating eggs, dairy, and meat may be 17 times worse than sticking to plant foods. Oh, and as a bonus, we could feed an additional 350 million Americans, like an entire extra country’s worth of people—more than if we eliminated food waste completely.
Changing meat-eating habits would seem to be a relatively cheap and easy way to mitigate climate change, in contrast to many other factors outside our control. However, surveys suggest few seem to recognize this option of eating less meat as a significant opportunity for helping. Research has shown that consumers often underestimate the impacts of meat consumption on the environment in general, and on climate change in particular. “The outstanding effectiveness of the less meat option (as established by climate experts) was recognized by… [only] 6 percent of [Americans sampled,],” and that’s after they were prompted to assume climate change is actually happening.
“There is an overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real and that we’re driving it,” but only about half of U.S. adults believe it. This is not by coincidence. Just like the tobacco industry tried to subvert the overwhelming evidence that smoking caused cancer, companies like “Exxon orchestrated climate change denial campaign[s] that stalled meaningful efforts… for decades.”
Certainly, environmental groups should know better, though. “None of the highest profile NGOs examined” appeared to want to feature the link between meat consumption and climate change. They were all aware of the evidence, of course, but evidently the science alone was not sufficient. It’s like another form of denialism that can become like a negative feedback loop, where it’s not popular to talk about, so you don’t talk about it, so it remains not popular to talk about, depriving the issue of the attention that it needs to break out.
And when they have messaged about it, environmental groups have tended to favor just asking for a moderate reduction in meat consumption––notable given the research demonstrating how much more powerful a lever it could be at the individual level to go even further. But, they don’t want to be seen as telling people what to do––instead advocating for small changes, like turning off your computer monitor at lunchtime or printing double-sided. But, “the cumulative impact of large numbers of individuals making [just] marginal improvements in their environmental impact” may end up constituting just a marginal collective improvement. Yet, we now live at a time when we need to make urgent and ambitious changes.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Isaacs D. Climate change: Whose responsibility?. J Paediatr Child Health. 2019;55(6):615-616.
- Hagedorn G, Kalmus P, Mann M, et al. Concerns of young protesters are justified. Science. 2019;364(6436):139-140.
- Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet. 2019;393(10170):447-492.
- Hawatt H. Including animal to plant protein shifts in climate change mitigation policy: a proposed three-step strategy. Clim Policy. 2019;19(5):533-41.
- Climate change and land. Summary for policymakers. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2019.
- Chai BC, van der Voort JR, Grofelnik K, Eliasdottir HG, Klöss I, Perez-Cueto FJA, Chai BC, van der Voort JR, Grofelnik K, Eliasdottir HG, et al. Which diet has the least environmental impact on our planet? A systematic review of vegan, vegetarian and omnivorous diets. Sustainability. 2019;11:4110.
- Patz JA, Frumkin H, Holloway T, Vimont DJ, Haines A. Climate change: challenges and opportunities for global health. JAMA. 2014;312(15):1565-80.
- Aleksandrowicz L, Green R, Joy EJ, Smith P, Haines A. The Impacts of Dietary Change on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Land Use, Water Use, and Health: A Systematic Review. PLoS ONE. 2016;11(11):e0165797.
- Turner-McGrievy GM, Leach AM, Wilcox S, Frongillo EA. Differences in environmental impact and food expenditures of four different plant-based diets and an omnivorous diet: results of a randomized, controlled intervention. J Hunger Environ Nutr. 2016;11(3):382-95.
- Baroni L, Berati M, Candilera M, Tettamanti M. Total Environmental Impact of Three Main Dietary Patterns in Relation to the Content of Animal and Plant Food. Foods. 2014;3(3):443-460.
- Shepon A, Eshel G, Noor E, Milo R. The opportunity cost of animal based diets exceeds all food losses. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2018;115(15):3804-3809.
- de Boer J, Schosler H, Boersema JJ. Climate change and meat eating: an inconvenient couple? J Environ Psychol. 2013;33:1-8.
- De boer J, De witt A, Aiking H. Help the climate, change your diet: A cross-sectional study on how to involve consumers in a transition to a low-carbon society. Appetite. 2016;98:19-27.
- Gross L. Confronting climate change in the age of denial. PLoS Biol. 2018;16(10):e3000033.
- Laestadius LI, Neff RA, Barry CL, et al. Meat consumption and climate change: the role of non-governmental organizations. Clim Change. 2013;120:25-38.
- Laestadius LI, Neff R, Barry CL, Frattaroli S. "We don't tell people what to do": an examination of the factors influencing NGO decisions to campaign for reduced meat consumption in light of climate change. Glob Environ Change. 2014;29:32-40.
- Laestadius LI, Neff RA, Barry CL, Frattaroli S. No meat, less meat, or better meat: understanding NGO messaging choices intended to alter meat consumption in light of climate change. Environ Commun. 2016;10(1):84-103.
- Thøgersen J, Crompton T. Simple and painless? The limitations of spillover in environmental campaigning. J Consum. 2009;32:141-63.
- McMichael AJ, Powles JW, Butler CD, Uauy R. Food, livestock production, energy, climate change, and health. Lancet. 2007;370(9594):1253-63.
Video production by Glass Entertainment
Motion graphics by Avocado Video
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Title
Which Diets Have the Lowest Carbon Footprint?
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Content URLDoctor's Note
This is the last video in a three-part series. If you missed the first two, see Win-Win Dietary Solutions to the Climate Crisis and Which Foods Have the Lowest Carbon Footprint?
I also have an older video, Diet & Climate Change: Cooking Up a Storm and a digital download on using plant-based or cultivated meat as a climate (and pandemic) mitigation strategy.
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