(Read this while you enjoy a good ribeye cooked medium rare. Then go enjoy a good long road trip.)
From “thepeoplesvoice.tv”
Driving cars and eating meat are major factors in greenhouse gas emissions, new junk jresearch suggests.
And apparently its men who are the main culprits as they do more of both than women!!
According to a preprint study of 15,000 people in France, men emit 26% more planet-heating pollution than women from transport and food. The gap shrinks to 18% after controlling for socioeconomic factors such as income and education..
The Guardian reports: Eating red meat and driving cars explain almost all of the 6.5-9.5% difference in pollution that remains after also accounting for men eating more calories and travelling longer distances, the researchers said. They found no gender gap from flying.
The economists think red meat consumption is just a male identity thing:
“Our results suggest that traditional gender norms, particularly those linking masculinity with red meat consumption and car use, play a significant role in shaping individual carbon footprints,” said Ondine Berland, an economist at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a co-author of the study.
Research into gender gaps is often plagued by difficult decisions about which factors to control for, with seemingly independent variables often confounded by gendered differences. Men need to eat more calories than women, for instance, but they also eat disproportionately more than women. They also have higher average incomes, which is itself correlated with higher emissions.
Previous research from Sweden has found men’s spending on goods causes 16% more climate-heating emissions than women’s, despite the sums of money being very similar.
Marion Leroutier, an environmental economist at Crest-Ensae Paris and a co-author of the study, said: “I think it’s quite striking that the difference in carbon footprint in food and transport use in France between men and women is around the same as the difference we estimate for high-income people compared to lower-income people.”
The most powerful actions a person can take to cut their carbon pollution include getting rid of a petrol car, eating less meat and avoiding flights.