| | | | | Eleni Kalorkoti for The Washington Post; iStock | | Since the Climate Coach column launched in January, you've asked a lot of questions on chats, podcasts and social media. This week, I'm sharing some answers to your big questions about everything from going vegan to building better batteries. Have more? The next live chat will be here on May 18 at 1 p.m. Eastern. Join me. And check out Voraciously's second plant-powered recipe newsletter series. Eating your vegetables has never been this much fun. | |  | | Do I have to become vegan to lower my diet's carbon emissions? — Sal Garcia on PostReports podcast People have a tendency to jump to extremes. It's either vegan or bust. But since 75 percent of your dietary emissions come from meat or dairy, you can get big impact from a very small change. A 2021 study in the journal Nature Food found substituting just 10 percent of the average American's daily caloric intake from meat with plants or even seafood slashed carbon emissions by about one-third. As for the impact of going vegan, watch the Climate Coach column for more details. | | EVs are great, but what about the impact of their batteries? — Hilary on The Post's live chat EVs are far cleaner than any gasoline vehicle (with the exception of the electric Hummer). But they come with unintended consequences: - The impact of mining and extraction of lithium, cobalt, nickel and other metals, on people and ecosystems.
- The emissions generated from mining, transporting, assembling and disposing of EV materials.
- The environmental hazards of processing, recovering or disposing of all this stuff.
If we don't try to avoid these, we'll face real problems. But, briefly, here's the target: A nearly closed-loop system in which all batteries are either reused — for example, as stationary batteries to back up the electric grid — or recovered and refurbished for use in new cars. We're not there yet, but we're moving in the right direction. | | I'm a college student. What can I do to cut my carbon footprint? — Giselle Korn on PostReports podcast You're probably living in one of the least-consumptive periods of your life. So instead of thinking too much about your precise emissions, it matters more to focus on creating habits that will serve you for the rest of your life. - Are you comfortable biking around campus?
- Is it easy to try out a plant-first diet?
- Are you really happy with the relatively small amount of stuff you have?
As you get older, changing habits or finding the time to try new things will be harder to do. Trust me. Thinking about those changes for the long term will have more impact than trying to nickel and dime your fuel mileage driving around town with your friends. | |  | | Did you know I read all your emails? Be part of the Climate Coach community. Write with clever ideas, bad jokes and ways I can make this newsletter better for you at climatecoach@washpost.com. | | Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Climate Coach in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. | | See you on Thursday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | | | | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment