How much do pets contribute to global warming?
Dogs and cats are responsible for a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by animal agriculture, according a new study out Wednesday, which adds up to a whopping 64 million tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent emitted in the production of their food.Click to see full answer. People also ask, how do pets contribute to climate…
Dogs and cats are responsible for a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by animal agriculture, according a new study out Wednesday, which adds up to a whopping 64 million tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent emitted in the production of their food.Click to see full answer. People also ask, how do pets contribute to climate change?Because much of that food is meat, and meat production is known to heavily contribute to climate change, our pets leave a pretty stark carbon footprint on our environment. Raising livestock for meat takes up land, water, and energy, which pumps lots of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the environment.Similarly, what is the carbon footprint of a dog? A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, estimated that there are 165 million dogs and cats in the US, which consume as much food as 62 million Americans. Another report calculates that this makes the dietary carbon footprint of US pets equivalent to that of 13.5 million cars. Correspondingly, is having a pet bad for the environment? “There are many impacts of pets on the environment,” says Gregory Okin, UCLA Geography professor and author of a recent study into the environmental impact of pets. “But they can also carry disease, pollute waterways and coastal zones through runoff from areas with faeces, and have adverse effects on wildlife.What animal has the biggest carbon footprint? The top 10 foods with the biggest environmental footprint Lamb: 39.2 kg CO2. Sorry, lamb lovers — eating a kilo of lamb is equivalent to driving about 90 miles! Beef: 27 kg CO2. Cheese: 13.5 kg CO2. Pork: 12.1 kg CO2. Farmed Salmon: 11.9 kg CO2. Turkey: 10.9 kg CO2. Chicken: 6.9 kg CO2. Canned Tuna: 6.1 kg CO2.
