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Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK

Overview of attention for article published in Climatic Change, June 2014
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#3 of 6,058)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (98th percentile)

Citations

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1584 Mendeley
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2 CiteULike
Title
Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK
Published in
Climatic Change, June 2014
DOI 10.1007/s10584-014-1169-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Peter Scarborough, Paul N. Appleby, Anja Mizdrak, Adam D. M. Briggs, Ruth C. Travis, Kathryn E. Bradbury, Timothy J. Key

Abstract

The production of animal-based foods is associated with higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than plant-based foods. The objective of this study was to estimate the difference in dietary GHG emissions between self-selected meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK. Subjects were participants in the EPIC-Oxford cohort study. The diets of 2,041 vegans, 15,751 vegetarians, 8,123 fish-eaters and 29,589 meat-eaters aged 20-79 were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Comparable GHG emissions parameters were developed for the underlying food codes using a dataset of GHG emissions for 94 food commodities in the UK, with a weighting for the global warming potential of each component gas. The average GHG emissions associated with a standard 2,000 kcal diet were estimated for all subjects. ANOVA was used to estimate average dietary GHG emissions by diet group adjusted for sex and age. The age-and-sex-adjusted mean (95 % confidence interval) GHG emissions in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents per day (kgCO2e/day) were 7.19 (7.16, 7.22) for high meat-eaters ( > = 100 g/d), 5.63 (5.61, 5.65) for medium meat-eaters (50-99 g/d), 4.67 (4.65, 4.70) for low meat-eaters ( < 50 g/d), 3.91 (3.88, 3.94) for fish-eaters, 3.81 (3.79, 3.83) for vegetarians and 2.89 (2.83, 2.94) for vegans. In conclusion, dietary GHG emissions in self-selected meat-eaters are approximately twice as high as those in vegans. It is likely that reductions in meat consumption would lead to reductions in dietary GHG emissions.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 794 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 1,584 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 5 <1%
United Kingdom 4 <1%
Germany 3 <1%
France 2 <1%
Australia 2 <1%
Denmark 2 <1%
Netherlands 2 <1%
Finland 2 <1%
Kenya 1 <1%
Other 8 <1%
Unknown 1553 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 341 22%
Student > Master 282 18%
Student > Ph. D. Student 191 12%
Researcher 153 10%
Other 48 3%
Other 169 11%
Unknown 400 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Environmental Science 225 14%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 194 12%
Social Sciences 94 6%
Engineering 77 5%
Medicine and Dentistry 71 4%
Other 453 29%
Unknown 470 30%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2146. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 November 2023.
All research outputs
#4,093
of 25,589,756 outputs
Outputs from Climatic Change
#3
of 6,058 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#15
of 243,762 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Climatic Change
#2
of 69 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,589,756 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 6,058 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 22.6. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 243,762 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 69 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.