Guest Thinkers — January 31, 2011

Should Carnivores Incur a Carbon Tax?

Many people think with either their wallets or their stomachs. Taking advantage of that by taxing meat products could reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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A tax on meat and milk would increase the amount people take out of their wallets for foods which contribute to climate change. That would likely reduce the amount of those foods they put in their stomachs. And that’s good for the environment, said a study published in the journal Climate Change. “This tax is not at all a matter of forcing people to become vegetarians but merely moving towards a slightly more climate-smart diet,” said one of the study’s authors Stefan Wirsenius, of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

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