You can eat burgers and not destroy the earth. Just not very many.
While not a vegetarian himself, your Back Page scribbler has nothing but respect and admiration for his family members, friends and colleagues who are committed to doing the right thing for their personal health and for the wellbeing of the planet.
But in an attempt to assuage the feelings of guilt triggered by his meat lust, your carnivorous correspondent nowadays exercises a degree of consumption restraint and no longer indulges in the flesh-eating marathons of years gone by.
The question is, if one does want to eat less meat for the sake of the environment (and the waistline), how little is little enough to make a difference?
Now, thanks to a new report from the World Resource Institute, we have an answer, which is “very little indeed”.
According to the institute’s State of Climate action report, released this week, the average citizen living in the developed world can treat themselves to about two hamburger patties a week and not be consumed with a dread anxiety that they are trashing the joint for future generations.
Yes, that’s all. Two hamburger patties, or the equivalent in animal protein, every seven days.
Of course, it’s not just the agricultural emissions generated by meat production that is a cause for climate concern. In the report, researchers examine how much progress is, or is not, being made in 40 different key climate indicators, such as transport methods and renewable energies.
It won’t surprise anyone to be told to that we custodians of this pale blue dot are not doing a great job on any front.
“The world has seen the devastation wrought by just 1.1C of warming,” Ani Dasgupta, the chief executive of the World Resources Institute, told media this week.
“Every fraction of a degree matters in the fight to protect people and the planet. We are seeing important advances in the fight against climate change, but we are still not winning in any sector,” he said.
Looks like it’s going to be salad for dinner again tonight.
If you see something that’s hard to swallow, cough it up to penny@medicalrepublic.com.au.
