Taxing Cheeseburgers Could Help Save the Climate
New Zealand is the only country so far to take the leap on a sort of meat tax, placing a methane tax on farms that takes effect in 2025. It shouldn’t be the last.
The cheeseburger’s unlikely role in fighting climate change.
Photographer: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
In the universe of possible tools to fight climate change, it’s hard to think of one that would be more politically toxic than a tax on cheeseburgers. You might as well put a tax on puppies, ice cream or even fun. And yet that cheeseburger tax might be a key to keeping catastrophic global warming at bay.
Imagine a fantasy future Earth in which kindly aliens or wizards eradicate fossil fuels overnight, replacing every gas tank, power plant and jet engine in the world with green alternatives. Would this mean the end of worrying about climate change? Sadly, no. And the reason, mainly, is those cheeseburgers.