You probably know that California is leading North America on its quest to reduce its greenhouse gases. Their plan is to cut back emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a 15% cut. To do so, they are establishing a cap and trade system for carbon dioxide, which hopefully will fit in nicely with whatever Obama has planned for the nation.
I wrote about their 2020 goals for Environmental Health Perspectives’ most recent issue, and I found it interesting to consider that not only are they a giant in North America, but on a worldwide perspective their economy is around the 8th largest. What they do has big implications.
And, how you eat has big implications too. At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago, I attended and wrote about a great session all about eating a low carbon diet. The article was recently published by Green Living Online, and it really was in stark contrast with a lot that we’ve been hearing about eating locally.
Instead the researchers showed that for meat, the travel emissions for trucking something from California are relatively minor compared to the emissions incurred from producing the meat, especially true for beef where a lot of the emissions come from the actual cow (eg. farts and burps).
And, if you’re wondering how to eat a low carbon diet check out www.eatlowcarbon.org, a website designed to help consumers pick the most climate change friendly foods when they eat out.
