Sunday, July 13, 2008

Bike commuters CO2 production


I heard recently someone declare, on CBC radios 'crosscountry checkup' (mp3 of that program on the proposed carbon tax), that a meat eating bicycle commuter produces more carbon emissions than a vegetarian SUV commuter. Turns out its not quite true according to this calculation investigating the exact same claim. However it is quite shocking how energy intensive a omnivorous diet actually is in this day of industrialized agriculture. Basically a full vegan diet saves about 1.5 tonnes of carbon emissions, while an SUV can produce over 3 tonnes of carbon emissions. So it's actually close enough that it depends on how long your commute actually is. I guess this leaves the question, could you do both? Probably not since vegetarians are so notoriously physically weak. I have yet to see one on UFC.
BTW check out how great a site New Zealand has for consumer information about choosing a good vehicle with safety, fuel economy and emissions as criteria. Compare this to the only equivalent Canadian site I could find.


4 comments:

Bayman said...

leaves only one solution. if you cycle to work, eat organic meat...


wait, are the emissions mostly coming from feed production or cow farts?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps we should eat SUV commuters.

rgendron said...

Mike Danzig is the winner of The Ultimate Fighter 6 - and a vegan :)

http://bit.ly/JBdXh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Danzig

Anonymous said...

Was he in the vegan division or something? Feather weight vegan division with open hand punches only.
:)