Scientists identify the exact number of hamburgers you can eat without destroying the Earth

The Paris Agreement , which was first signed in 2015, an international agreement to control and limit climate change, hopes to limit global warming to 1.5ºC, a figure that should be more important to us than ever, since studies affirm that 25% of the world could see a significant increase in the most adverse weather conditions: droughts, forest fires…

Now the World Resource Institute ‘s (WRI) new State of Climate Action 2022 report, released this week, outlines just how much work humanity has to do to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Described as a ‘to-do list’ for humanity, the report calls on society to reduce its meat consumption, among other things, to reduce global warming.

How much should we reduce our meat intake?

According to the document, reducing meat consumption to the equivalent of two beef patties per person per week by 2030 will help avert a climate crisis. This example of those two hamburgers would have to be the only meat we eat a week to meet the goal and face the climate emergency that is devastating the planet.

The report examined global progress on 40 indicators that would be key to halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, in line with the goal of limiting temperature increases to 1.5°C above levels. pre-industrial The outlook is quite grim, experts say, since more than half of the indicators are not even close to the objectives, and five, specifically, are going in the opposite direction to the goal.

“The State of Climate Action 2022 is an urgent wake-up call for decision-makers to commit to real transformation in all aspects of our economy,” the report says.

Our shift to a healthier, more sustainable diet should happen five times faster than the current rate on the planet. The current consumption of beef per person is 91 kilocalories per day, which is equivalent to 2.3 hamburgers per week or 10 hamburgers per month. But the goal for 2030 is to reduce it to 79 kilocalories per day (two burgers per week or 8.5 burgers per month) and the goal for 2050 is 60 kilocalories per day (1.5 burgers per week or 6.5 burgers per month) .

According to the report, if humans want to avoid the worst of climate catastrophes, we will have to do many (not very simple) things much faster than we are doing them today. For example, deforestation rates should also drop dramatically and public transportation should be faster and more efficient.

The report is a joint effort between multiple climate organizations, including the World Resources Institute, Climate Action Tracker, and the Bezos Earth Fund, a nonprofit created by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Referencia: The State of Climate Action 2022 wri.org/research/state-climate-action-2022

Published under Systems Change Lab, this report is a joint effort between Bezos Earth Fund, Climate Action Tracker, Climate Analytics, ClimateWorks Foundation, NewClimate Institute, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, and World Resources Institute.