Saturday, November 07, 2009

Does Dog = SUV?

Does a dog's carbon foot print equal that of a large SUV? Well this is the thesis of the recent book Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living. They provide a back of the envelope calculation showing that the resources for Fido's food result in a carbon foot print equal to that of driving a large SUV. When I first read this, I was highly skeptical of their numbers, but didn't know where to start. Well Clark Williams-Derry, over at at Sightline Daily provides a simple back of the envelope debunking of this thesis. Simply put, Time to eat the dog argues that it takes .84 hectares to meet a pooch's food needs for a year. This translates into needing a third of all US cropland to feed our nation's dogs. Yet pet food sales only accounts for 1% of the total food economy. So the numbers just don't add up!

1 comment:

K T Cat said...

Your dog has been eating out a lot lately. He's just been lying to you about it.