{"id":418777,"date":"2025-12-27T13:19:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T12:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=418777"},"modified":"2025-12-27T13:19:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T12:19:40","slug":"new-climate-guilt-trip-dont-enjoy-food-during-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=418777","title":{"rendered":"New Climate Guilt Trip: Don\u2019t Enjoy Food During the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the University of British Columbia and the \u201cEverything and we mean everything<\/em>, that is good or fun in today\u2019s world is bad for the climate\u201d Department comes this Grinch-like peer reviewed rubbish. One wonders how anyone could write this stuff, let alone put out a press release on it with a straight face. \u2013 Anthony<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

How changing your diet could help save the world<\/strong>

For many of us, the holiday season can mean delightful overeating, followed by recriminatory New Year\u2019s resolutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But eating enough and no more should be on the menu for all of us, according to a recent UBC study.<\/a> It found that 44 per cent of us would need to change our diets for the world to warm no more than 2 C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Juan Diego Martinez, who led the research as a doctoral student at UBC\u2019s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, discusses the study\u2019s findings and the simple dietary changes we can all make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did you find?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half of us globally and at least 90 per cent of Canadians need to change our diets to prevent severe planetary warming. And that number is conservative, because we used 2012 data. Since then, emissions and the world\u2019s population have both increased. Looking ahead to 2050, we found that 90 per cent of us will need to be eating differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We looked at data from 112 countries, accounting for 99 per cent of food-related greenhouse gas emissions globally and divided each country\u2019s population into 10 income groups. We calculated a food emissions budget for each person by combining emissions from food consumption, global food production and supply chains, and compared these emissions to the total the world can afford if we want to stay below 2 C of warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why focus on dietary changes rather than, say, flying less?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world\u2019s food systems are responsible for more than one-third of all human greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found that the 15 per cent of people who emitted the most account for 30 per cent of total food emissions, equaling the contribution of the entire bottom 50 per cent. This selects group consists of the wealthiest people in high emissions countries, including the Central African Republic, Brazil and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though this group is emitting a lot, there is a much higher number of people whose diets are above that cap. This is why half, not just the richest, of the global population needs to change diets. In Canada, all 10 income groups are above the cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Debates around flying less, driving electric and buying fewer luxury goods are valid: We need to reduce emissions any way we can. However, food emissions are not just a problem for the richest\u2014we all need to eat, so we can all make a change. For people who are both flying frequently and eating lots of beef, it\u2019s not an either\/or: Try to reduce both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What changes can we make to our diets?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eat only what you need. Repurpose what you don\u2019t. Less wasted food means fewer emissions, less cooking and more easy, tasty leftovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eliminate or reduce your beef consumption\u201443 per cent of food-related emissions from the average Canadian come from beef alone. We could have had our beef and eaten it too if we\u2019d followed the agreements laid out in the Kyoto Protocol<\/a>, but we\u2019re now at a point where food emissions also need to fall to avoid the worst of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in Latin America where eating a lot of beef is part of the culture, so I get how much of an ask this is. But we just can\u2019t deny the data anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vote with your fork. This is a first step to demand change from your political leaders. The more we talk about our own dietary changes and what matters to us, the more politicians will begin to care about policies that bring positive changes to our food systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Journal<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Environmental Research Food Systems DOI 10.1088\/2976-601X\/ae10c0 <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the University of British Columbia and the \u201cEverything and we mean\u00a0everything, that is good or fun in today\u2019s world is bad for the climate\u201d Department comes this Grinch-like peer reviewed rubbish. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":418779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvY2xpbWF0ZS1zY2llbmNlLnByZXNzXC93cC1jb250ZW50XC91cGxvYWRzXC8yMDI1XC8xMlwvQVFOVUx3VFVraDBVYi1QbjFjWkhoRkhWa1JZUkhNLVBzaFpZdjBPRUUzZ2FvZnhjUnVNSThlNE55UzRzX2ZBMzlLLUZPT2pTQzFwX003ZENsVWVxN0ZhVUNqSFlXNEU5dlphd1N3M3hKSE5KRjFhVmF6ZklUdTB3WUdYQXN3UDUtMTAyNHg2MTMuanBlZyIsInR4dCI6Ik5ldyBDbGltYXRlIEd1aWx0IFRyaXA6IERvblx1MjAxOXQgRW5qb3kgRm9vZCBEdXJpbmcgdGhlIEhvbGlkYXlzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE1NTgxMjQ0OX0.ct6-dIappx031uBLXq0bP-dFnE2ZSVgj0uFnsLGhJWEMQ"},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818169,691818056,691818087,691840351,691840350,691840353,691840349],"class_list":{"0":"post-418777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-bad-science","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-global-warming","11":"tag-planetary-warming","12":"tag-save-the-world","13":"tag-total-food-emissions","14":"tag-university-of-british-columbia","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AQNULwTUkh0Ub-Pn1cZHhFHVkRYRHM-PshZYv0OEE3gaofxcRuMI8e4NyS4s_fA39K-FOOjSC1p_M7dClUeq7FaUCjHYW4E9vZawSw3xJHNJF1aVazfITu0wYGXAswP5.jpeg?fit=1493%2C894&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1KWt","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":224989,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=224989","url_meta":{"origin":418777,"position":0},"title":"#33 – Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore: \u201cCO2 is entirely beneficial\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"21\/10\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As the leader of many campaigns Dr. Moore was a driving force shaping policy and direction while Greenpeace became the world's largest environmental activist organization.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/0Screenshot-2022-10-21-203440.png?fit=895%2C504&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/0Screenshot-2022-10-21-203440.png?fit=895%2C504&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/0Screenshot-2022-10-21-203440.png?fit=895%2C504&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/0Screenshot-2022-10-21-203440.png?fit=895%2C504&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":222639,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=222639","url_meta":{"origin":418777,"position":1},"title":"Be afraid! 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