19/08/2019
๐ฃ๐ฃโWhat is your Carbon Foot Print?โ is a question which is becoming more & more mainstream and rightly so as we continue to face more and more ill effects from Carbon Emissions and the Global Warming that they bring with them. At this stage, there is no questioning the validity of climate change, so we must begin to make changes before it is too late. There is a wide range of supports and articles on โHow to reduce your Carbon Footprintโ, but what has been less widely discussed is the Carbon Footprint of manโs best friend, Dogs. There are two major elements of Dog ownership which have an undeniable and considerable environmental impact.
๐๐A recent study by UCLA found that feeding Pets creates the equivalent of 64 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, for context, this has the same impact on our climate as yearsโ worth of driving from 13.6 million cars.
๐ฉ๐ฉOur pooches p**p is very damaging to our environment. Every ounce of Dog waste releases Methane, which is a Greenhouse Gas, most closely associated with Cows. It is known to be 30% more powerful than Carbon Dioxide. In 2017, it was estimated there were 450,000 Dogs in Ireland and that means approximately 120 million pounds of Dog Waste was produced in 2017 alone, creating massive amounts of Methane gas which enters our atmosphere.
๐ถ๐ฃThis f***l matter alone provide food for thought, but paired with the substantial impact caused by the feeding of our Dogs, it becomes hard to ignore the considerable environmental impact caused by our Pets, especially our precious pooches.
Of course, all of this does not mean that Pet Ownership needs to be abolished and banned, as long as there are humans, there will be always be pets. But, at the same time, it is important to remain conscious of our Carbon Footprint at all times and to remember that our furry friends have a carbon footprint too.
๐ฌ ๐ฌ Comment down below any suggestions you have for reducing our pooches Carbon Pawprint!