More Canadians should limit car usage, red meat consumption to fight climate change: expert

Toronto -

When it comes to fighting climate change, a Toronto-based architect says personal actions have more of an impact than most people would expect.

Lloyd Alter, who teaches sustainable design at Ryerson University's School of Interior Design, is the author of the book, "Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle: Why Individual Climate Action Matters More Than Ever." In the book, he argues that the climate impact of actions such as driving less or limiting red meat consumption can go a long way.

"When we make these changes in our lifestyles, they add up," Alter told CTV's Your Morning on Monday.

• Sign up for The Climate Barometer, delivered to your inbox every week

A 2019 European study found that household consumer behaviour was responsible for 72 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Car usage, meat and dairy consumption and home heating were the biggest components of household emissions.

"The biggest offender for Canadian households is basically their cars. We buy big cars. We put a lot of gas in them. We drive longer distance than other people," Alter said. "Obviously that goes way down if people start doing things like biking and walking instead of driving."

Alter also points out that 74 per cent of Canadians live in suburban single-family detached houses. It takes far more natural gas to heat these types of homes compared to townhouses or apartments, given that these houses are larger and are exposed to the weather on all four walls.

But for many Canadians, it's not practical to change where they live or completely ditch their cars. Alter says making smaller lifestyle changes, such as eating less red meat or choosing to buy local produce, can still "significantly reduce our footprints without changing our lives dramatically."

Last October, Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse's "Treeprint" report calculated that it takes 44 birch trees to offset eating a 200-gram piece of steak three times a week. On the other hand, eating the same amount of chicken three times a week is only equivalent to six birch trees.

"When you put it into trees, it's something that people can wrap their heads around and understand because everybody knows what a tree looks like," Alter said.

"You could still eat a bit of chicken. You can still eat a bit of pork. You can eat these other meats that have a much, much lower carbon impact"

Some environmentalists have argued over-emphasizing personal carbon footprints shifts too much of the responsibility away from large corporations. A 2017 report from the non-profit group CDP found that 100 companies – almost all from the fossil fuel industry – are responsible for 71 per cent of the world's emissions since 1988.

However, Alter says energy production from these companies is driven by demand from consumers at the end of the day.

"You've got to look at it from a consumer point of view rather than a production point of view. Everyone says 100 oil companies are responsible for all the emissions, but we're buying what they're selling and we're putting that in our gas tanks," he said.