Information Sheet

Here is the Information Sheet that we provided during our trial run of LessMeat Monday. It provides estimates of two main things, the amount of carbon produced by meat production in CO2 equivalents and the social cost of that carbon. LessMeat Monday Info Sheet. If you’re not familiar with those two terms, we’ve provided a basic description below:

Green House Gases (GHG) are what create the atmosphere and trap heat on the earth. Humans have been emitting GHG into the atmosphere at an unprecedented pace, which is the leading cause of human induced global climate change. Meat production releases multiple GHG including methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide. All of the gases have different global warming potentials, which means some gases are thicker or more powerful blankets on the atmosphere than others. To standardize them, most scientist put all GHG in terms of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) equivalents. That way all the GHG can be calculated as one number, even though it accounts for multiple types of gases.

We also provide an estimate of the social cost of that carbon, which is an attempt to put a dollar value on the externality of green house gases. Basically it estimates how much economic damage will be done in the future by one pound of GHG (in CO2 equivalents) that is released now. This cost is an externality because it is not currently factored into the price we pay to purchase meat.

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