Want a diet for a cooler planet? Pick plants.


A typical vegan diet has the lowest average carbon footprint (3.0 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents per 2,000 calories), followed by vegetarian (5.1), pescatarian (7.3), omnivore (9.8), paleo (11.6), and keto (12.8) diets, scientists estimated. A Mediterranean (4.3) or DASH (8.1) diet beat other omnivore diets.

What to do

To trim your carbon footprint, minimize beef. Also cut back on pork, dairy, poultry, and seafood.