How do we make the largest impact on climate change?
In its Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change report, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) designated three options for transitioning to a low-carbon lifestyle. A low-carbon lifestyle means living in a way that produces the least amount of carbon dioxide (CO2). The three options are Avoid, Shift, and Improve. According to the Technical Summary of the Mitigation of Climate Change report, “the greatest Shift potential would come from switching to plant-based diets.”
“The food sector dominates in all income groups, comprising 28% of households’ carbon footprint, with cattle and rice the major contributors” (Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change). Twenty-Eight percent of households’ carbon comes from food regardless of income. “The estimated technical potential for GHG emissions reductions associated with shifts to sustainable healthy diets is 0.5–8 GtCO2-eq (high confidence).” The acronym GtCO2-eq means “gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent.”
How big is a gigatonne? “This unit of mass is equivalent to one billion metric tons, 2.2 trillion pounds, or 10,000 fully-loaded U.S. aircraft carriers.” (Conlen, Matt. “Visualizing the Quantities of Climate Change.” NASA Global Climate Change website).
How much is a metric ton of carbon dioxide? A metric ton is 2,204.6 pounds. Picture a cube 27 feet tall, long, and wide. It’s approximately the length of a telephone pole. This cube weighs the same as a great white shark or 400 bricks. (Tso, Kathryn. “How much is a ton of carbon dioxide?” MIT Climate).
When individuals choose to shift to a healthy diet that’s sustainable, the greenhouse gas emissions decreases by half to eight GtCO2-eq. Are you ready to make a few shifts towards a more sustainable healthy diet? Tap the image below to get started.
References:
Conlen, Matt. “Visualizing the Quantities of Climate Change.” NASA Global Climate Change website, March 09, 2020. https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2933/visualizing-the-quantities-of-climate-change/#:~:text=So%20how%20big%20is%20just%20one%20gigatonne%3F&text=This%20unit%20of%20mass%20is,fully%2Dloaded%20U.S.%20aircraft%20carriers.
Creutzig, F., J. Roy, P. Devine-Wright, J. Díaz-José, F.W. Geels, A. Grubler, N. Maïzi, E. Masanet, Y. Mulugetta, C.D. Onyige, P.E. Perkins, A. Sanches-Pereira, E.U. Weber, 2022: Demand, services and social aspects of mitigation. In IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926.007.
Fuhrman, Joel, M.D. (2020). Eat for Life: The Breakthrough Nutrient-Rich Program for Longevity, Disease Reversal, and Sustained Weight Loss. HarperOne.
“Overview of Greenhouse Gases…6,340 million metric tons of CO2: What does that mean?” EPA.gov. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases#colorbox-hidden
Tso, Kathryn. “How much is a ton of carbon dioxide?” MIT Climate, December 2, 2020. https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-much-ton-carbon-dioxide