Was looking into this because of that recent Paul McCartney article that was shared, and wanted to share what I found:

Here’s a good breakdown of differences between vegan & vegetarian diets in terms of climate impact: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00795-w

Emissions:

  • Vegan:............. CO2: 2.16, CH4: 04.39, N2O: 0.71
  • Vegetarian:........ CO2: 3.33, CH4: 20.21, N2O: 0.98
  • medium meat-eaters: CO2: 5.34, CH4: 40.88, N20: 1.73
  • high meat-eaters:.. CO2: 7.28, CH4: 65.40, N2O: 2.62

So vegans have 30% of the emissions as high-meat-eaters, and the differences between vegans and vegetarians are significant with regards to their emissions, particularly methane emissions due to the significantly higher consumption of cheese by vegetarians.

(EDIT: it has been suggested it’s worth clarifying that vegan diet having 30% CO2 emissions means that there was a 70% reduction in CO2 emissions, and that methane emissions were reduced by 93% going from high-meat to vegan.)

Vegetarians ate significantly more cheese (30 g / day) than even meat-eaters (19 g / day), despite eating less dairy overall otherwise.

Also should be noted that there is a big gap between biodiversity impact between vegans and vegetarians, with vegetarian diets causing nearly double the number of species extinctions per day than vegan diets.

I was surprised that water use was so similar between vegans and vegetarians considering how much cheese vegetarians eat.

I still would recommend a vegetarian diet to meat eaters, as it’s still a massive improvement (and in my experience, it’s easier to become vegan once vegetarian), just thought it was interesting to actually quantify differences between veganism and vegetarianism in terms of climate impact.

  • dandelion (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
    4·
    5 days ago

    absolutely - the study also looked at and compared low, medium, and high meat diets precisely to quantify those differences (and they are significant!)

    if you are vegetarian, you shouldn’t have a B12 deficiency if you’re still eating eggs or dairy, though - that’s a bit surprising, I would only expect B12 deficiency in people who eat a non-fortified vegan diet (or similar diet like fruititarian where there is no source of any animal products).

    I would maybe talk to a doctor about that 😅

    also, proud of you not spiraling into restrictive dieting - that’s very healthy and inspiring

    • smh@slrpnk.net
      4·
      4 days ago

      Thanks. I did talk to my doctor about the low B12 and she said that it was a combination of low baseline B12 and a new medication I’m on that further depletes my B12. So, supplements are my friend.

      (Also, low B12 feels wicked weird, all sorts of odd nerve stuff in my hands was my clue, and it cleared up quickly after I started supplements.)