And That’s a Wrap!
Roll the end credits: The DOT PROJECT IS DONE…or is it?
After five weeks, the DOT Project is finally over. Cue the credits, cue the cheers from the class, cue the awards. All that’s left to do is one last statement.
My DOT project was going pescatarian. I couldn't eat meat for Lent, so I didn't have a baseline data week. Instead, I implemented my DOT for five weeks and not four. During my DOT, I calculated the amount of CO2 emissions, in ounces, I saved by avoiding meat. When I added all the data together I was astounded by the results. When I first started my DOT, I assumed that everyone was over-exaggerating the impact of eating animal products on the environment. Not going to lie, I didn't think it was as big of a deal if one person didn't eat meat. I knew meat production was an issue, but how much of an impact one person can have didn't hit me until I saw my results.
I’m not the biggest meat eater ever. I normally eat meat maybe twice a week. Over the course of the five-week project, I ate a meat substitute 14 times. In those 14 times, I ate 61.5 oz and saved 1,168 oz (73 lbs) of CO2. That number really put things into perspective for me. Seventy-three pounds of CO2 saved in just five weeks. If I continued this for the whole year I would save about 12,147 oz or 759 lbs of CO2.
After learning what just one person can save, I wondered what would happen if all of DC went pescatarian. Assuming that everyone in the city ate about the same amount of meat I did, my data would be multiplied by every person in the city. As of 2012, there are 633,427 people living in DC. So if everyone went pescatarian, approximately 480 million pounds of CO2 would be avoided. This is equal to about 240,386 tons. Imagine what would happen if the whole world went pescatarian!
These results really shook me. I had no idea there was this much of an impact from meat products. When the DOT finished, I didn't want to go back to the way I was eating meat before but I also knew that I wouldn’t go full on vegetarian. So I came to the conclusion that a compromise would work best. I’m not going full-on vegetarian, but I am going to stop eating so much meat, and if I have the option, choose the vegetarian option over the meat.
We all — everyone in the world — have a responsibility to do everything in their power to lower their carbon footprint. I’m writing this on Mothers Day (happy mothers day, by the way), but it’s made me think about the “Mother” we all have in common — Mother Nature. We need to take care of her, too. We have to do everything we can to ensure that we take care of our Earth. There are really simple ways to do your part, and there are a ton of websites you can look at to find them, such as the National Ocean Service. We don’t have much time until we enter an extreme crisis. Please help stop this. Today.
