[thedoc (OP)]

What very very tiny easy changes can we all make in our lives that will add up overall to us having a reduced environmental impact?
Asked by Richard Thornley


                                        Visit the webpage for the podcast in which this question is answered.

[chapter podcast=1001476 track=16.10.04/Naked_Scientists_Show_16.10.04_1005756.mp3]  ...or Listen to the Answer[/chapter] or [download as MP3]

[chiralSPO]

Only eat meat once per week. If that sounds like a big change, maybe try eating no meat one day per week (and don't reward yourself with a big steak the next day  []), and after doing that for a month, try going 2 days per week without meat...


Livestock (especially cattle, but also pigs, sheep, and chickens) have an incredibly large environmental impact.
Read about it here:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/feastandfamine/2013/12/livestock
here:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/08/us-could-feed-800-million-people-grain-livestock-eat
here:
https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=29892
or do some googling

[alancalverd]

Absolutely agree. Farm animals generate 25% of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide and change the landscape. If you must eat meat, go for pork or chicken (more efficient protein converters than cattle) or preferably sheep/goat (grazed on land that can't be used for arable crops). If you want to make a really big positive contribution, eat insects.

Next, wear lots of wool (aha! the sheep again!) and turn off the central heating. 40% of energy consumption is for space heating which is completely unnecessary (ask any Inuit) and leads to obesity (75% of the calories you consume are used to maintain your body temperature - or would be, if we didn't heat our environment). 

Best of all, die. The hallmark of life is that every living thing consumes its environment and excretes toxins.