If your tofu has turned green, you'll probably want to toss it. But the results of a recent study show that our tofu is so green that it's a cause for celebration!

The findings of this new study reveal how vegan foods, such as veggie dogs, tofu, and seitan, contribute little to climate change compared to meat. For example, only 350 grams of carbon dioxide are released for each kilogram of soy "meat" produced, while an equivalent amount of ground meat is responsible for around 7,200 grams of carbon dioxide. If my math is correct, that means a hamburger patty causes more than 20 times more harmful greenhouse gasses to be released than does a veggie burger of the same size.

PETA's always said that "meat's not green" because of the severe environmental damage caused by factory farming—which releases massive amounts of the greenhouse gasses that cause climate change.

With a growing focus on our responsibility for maintaining our planet, there's still no better way to go green than by going vegan.

If you're one of those people who need a deadline to take action, here's one for you: five years. That's how long analysts with the International Energy Agency give the world's governments to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and reverse climate change "before it's too late." Governments have their role, but there's an important lifestyle change that every individual can make to ensure that our planet doesn't become a giant sauna: Go vegan.

A plant-based diet is not only healthier for you but also better for the entire planet. Consider the following statistics:

• Producing a single pound of meat emits the same amount of greenhouse gasses as driving 40 miles in an SUV.
• It takes 10 times as much fossil fuel to produce one calorie from animal protein as it does to produce one calorie from plant protein.
• If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and opted for plant-based foods instead, the carbon-dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.

In addition, raising animals for food in the U.S. alone produces 89,000 pounds of waste per second. Much of that untreated waste ends up polluting our land and waterways. 

There's no time to delay switching to a healthy, vegan diet. Check out PETA's vegetarian/vegan starter kit, and share it with friends and family. On behalf of everyone who's become rather fond of Earth's inhabitable qualities, thank you.

Written by Heather Faraid Drennan

The Blue Devils are becoming angels for animals and the environment. Duke University is asking its students, faculty, and staff to cut some or all meat from their diets in February in order to promote better health and a cleaner environment. 

The office of Duke's executive vice president posted a letter on the Sustainable Duke website saying, "Studies show a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes with a vegetarian diet. A vegetarian diet also produces less of the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change."

It sounds like campus eateries are offering more vegetarian options too: "[A] vegetarian diet is much more than veggies, and we've got the delicious recipes to prove it."

To help with the transition, PETA has offered the school thousands of free "Meat's Not Green" leaflets and copies of the vegetarian/vegan starter kit, reminding everyone how easy and tasty meatless meals can be!

Written by Michelle Sherrow

If you're still eating meat, you might as well be driving a Hummer. Studies have shown that raising animals for food is the single largest source of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions, which are all responsible for climate change. A new study has found that taxing meat could help significantly curtail greenhouse-gas emissions by curbing meat consumption.

The study, from Sweden's University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology, also found that if land that's used for factory farming were instead used to grow bioenergy crops, greenhouse-gas emissions would be cut even further.

Don't wait for the tax collector to come knockin'—you can get a jump on shrinking your carbon footprint by ordering PETA's free vegetarian/vegan starter kit today.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

stuffthathappens / CC

Without spam e-mail, there could be no "Who got the funniest spam today?" (I won today with "You can look fancy even if you are a simple taxi driver.") But is spam destroying the Earth?

It turns out that spam has a heck of a carbon footprint. According to a recently released study producing the energy that was required to delete spam and search for actual e-mail that mistakenly ended up in junk e-mail folders during 2008 created greenhouse-gas emissions equivalent to 3.1 million passenger cars using 2 billion gallons of gas.

That's pretty staggering, but what about another type of SPAM—the processed meat product from Hormel? Fact: Producing eight ounces of pork is the greenhouse-gas equivalent of driving a standard car 2.52 miles. Let's assume that, after you take all the water, salt, and et cetera out of a 12-ounce can of SPAM, there are 10 or 11 ounces of actual pork. So, producing a can of SPAM is the equivalent of driving more than 3 miles. Deleting one piece of e-mail spam, on the other hand, is the equivalent of driving 3 feet.

So, yes, a can of SPAM has a carbon footprint that is more than 5,000 times larger than that of a piece of spam e-mail.

On a related note, according to Live Earth, going vegetarian is the "single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint"—certainly more effective than installing a spam filter, anyway.

Written by Amanda Schinke