Daily Auto News New Book Argues: Love The Earth? Kill Your Dog, Buy an SUV
Daily Auto News
If you love the earth, you’ll get rid of the dog and buy a Range Rover instead. The authors of a new book argue that you’d do less damage to the environment in your luxury large SUV than you do by feeding your Rottweiler.
Fox News explains, “New Zealand authors Robert and Brenda Vale’s book, Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living is an exhaustive analysis of the environmental impact of common pets such as cats and dogs.” The authors, a pair of architects who study sustainable living, “studied the carbon emissions created by pets, including the ingredients in their food and the land required to grow it. And the results don’t bode well for Fido, who compares poorly to that SUV.”
New Scientist explains their math: “To measure the ecological paw, claw and fin-prints of the family pet, the Vales analyzed the ingredients of common brands of pet food.” The pair found that a medium-sized dog eating dry dog food consumes the equivalent of “about 164 kilograms [361 pounds] of meat and 95 kilograms [209 pounds] of cereals” per year. It takes, they estimate, “43.3 square meters of land to generate 1 kilogram of chicken per year — far more for beef and lamb – and 13.4 square meters to generate a kilogram of cereals. So that gives him a footprint of 0.84 hectares [2.08 acres]. For a big dog such as a German shepherd, the figure is 1.1 hectares [2.72 acres].”
A Toyota Land Cruiser, meanwhile, “driven a modest 10,000 kilometers [6,214 miles] a year, uses 55.1 gigajoules, which includes the energy required both to fuel and to build it. One hectare of land can produce approximately 135 gigajoules of energy per year, so the Land Cruiser’s eco-footprint is about 0.41 hectares [1.01 acres] — less than half that of a medium-sized dog.”
Before the angry emails start, let us point out a few obvious criticisms:
According to Department of Transportation figures, the average American drives nearly 15,000 miles per year – so you’d need to nearly triple their figures to get an honest estimation of a Land Cruiser’s impact. That changes the math drastically.
Second, the dog eats replaceable resources – we can grow more food. The SUV burns fossil fuels…and we can’t grow more oil.
The study also didn’t take emissions into account. On the whole, it’s probably not a reason to give up the dog just yet. Still, for those who are concerned by the results but love to have a pet in their life, Robert Vale has a suggestion. New Scientist reports, “He recommends hens, which partly compensate for their eco-footprint by providing eggs. Or there is an even better alternative, if you can stomach it. ‘Rabbits are good,’ he says, ‘provided you eat them.’”
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