News Car News 11/01/2009 at 5:24 amAt last week’s 2009 Poptech conference, author Michael Pollan made this claim: “A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius.”
Michael Pollan
Days later, Pollan, author of the bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma, retracted the statement after researchers showed that Hummers are significantly more destructive to the environment than hamburgers.
In a blog posted by Reuters’ Adam Pacisk, this evidence came to light:
- Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin of the University of Chicago found, in a 2006 study, that the difference between a heavy meat-eating diet and a vegan diet was about 2 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per person per year.
- The professors found the difference between a Prius and a Hummer-sized SUV is 4.76 tons per year.
Therefore, switching to a Prius from a Hummer saves more than twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as giving up meat. Of course, going vegan and hybrid at the same time would be like super-sizing your carbon offsets.
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Tags: Author Michael, Beef Eater, Carbon Dioxide Equivalent, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Offsets, Conference Author, Dilemma, Eshel, Gidon, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Hamburgers, Hummer, Michael Pollan, Pamela Martin, Poptech, Prius, Professors, Reuters, University Of Chicago, Vegan Diet
