According to a new study, the carbon footprint of a dog is more than double that of an SUV and the footprint of a cat isn't much better.
Robert and Brenda Vale, sustainable living specialists in New Zealand, calculated that a medium-sized dog eats about 570 pounds of food a year, putting their carbon footprint at 2.07 acres – that being the amount of land and energy to make all of the food they consume annually. The annual carbon footprint of an SUV that is driven 6,200 miles a year (and the energy used to build it) is about 1.01 acres. Their findings were also reconfirmed by John Barrett at the Stockholm Environmental Institute.
This article appears in Dec 23-29, 2009.