“A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius.”
A powerful satetement was made by food writer Michael Pollan at a PopTech Conference last October and an arresting illustratration of how consuming meat impacts climate change.I thought about Pollan’s statement a little more, in light of the perception that Hummer loyalists have of themselves. I wrote about this earlier, but a study has found that people who drive Hummers see themselves as defending virtues such as American exceptionalism, rugged individualism, love of the frontier, community and freedom. Traditional American cuisine is meat heavy; consider burgers, hot dogs, sausage and eggs and bar-b-q. Frankly, I think it would be nigh near impossible to find a vegeterian among the Hummer crown, much less a vegan.
Unfortunately, Pollan retracted his statement after two University of Chicago scientists refuted his statements. Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin discovered that “a heavy meat-eater diet creates about two tons more carbon dioxide per year than does a vegan diet. Furthermore, they compared the carbon footprints of the Toyota Prius and the Chevy Suburban (similar mileage to a Hummer) and concluded a difference of about 4.67 tons per year.”
Eshel, who is a proponent of environmentalism, softened his criticism of Pollan’s analogy by stating that “you cannot be an environmentalist, you can’t even remotely claim to be anything but a selfish lunatic if you drive a Hummer.”
It appears that one can be a meat-eater and an environmentalist provided extra effort is made in other aspects of life, like not driving gas guzzlers.



