In 2011, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales they asked their parishioners to return to the now abandoned tradition of not eating meat on Fridays. The objective, as in the beginning of this religious custom, was to honor Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion. But there was a much more beneficial result than this tribute: carbon emissions in this part of the planet were reduced in a way that was as positive as it was unexpected. Thus contributing to the fight against climate change, of course.
This is the conclusion of a recently published study by scientists at the University of Cambridge. In it, they not only put figures on what happened after the decision of these Catholic bishops. They also point out that if the Pope Francisco asked for something similar for the entire Catholic population, the benefits for the environment would be immense.
In reality, it is not something so far-fetched, since the supreme pontiff already made a call to take action against climate change. Now it could be in his hand to materialize those measures. And all without leaving the traditions of the Catholic religion. That use of religion of course we did not expect.
Where does the Catholic tradition of not eating meat on Fridays come from?
The Catholic tradition of not eating meat on Fridays was established in the 9th century by Pope Nicholas I.
According to this, Catholics should not eat meat, although they could eat fish, crabs, or frogs. It is curious what was considered meat and what was not. Especially if we take into account that in the 17th century beavers came to be considered fish in order to eat them in Lent, when the tradition of Fridays lasted for many more days. But that is another business.
In any case, over time the custom of don’t eat meat on fridays was discarded. Even the Catholic Church itself stopped advising its parishioners. Only a few high officials of the ecclesiastical hierarchy have tried to maintain a tradition that has been falling under its own weight. Until now. And it is that, thanks to those bishops of England and Wales, we have a most curious weapon against climate change.
Meat consumption and carbon footprint
The cattle raising is one of the great promoters of the issuance of greenhouse gases. Not just for the methane emissions of the animals themselves. also for the great energy consumption that it requires and what that implies in CO₂ emissions.
For this reason, we try to make the world population aware of the importance of reduce meat consumption to look after the future of the planet. And possibly that was not the intention of these bishops, but their requests were very effective. Even without having been obeyed by all his parishioners.
In fact, according to interviews conducted during the study with Catholics whose parishes are part of these bishoprics, only 28% of them adjusted their diet to go meatless on Fridays. Of them, 41% completely stopped eating meat on the fifth day of the week, while 55% greatly reduced their consumption on this day. With that alone, it was found that in that period carbon emissions into the atmosphere were reduced by 55,000 tons per year. This is equivalent to 82,000 fewer people traveling from London to New York in one year. It is a far from negligible figure, which could increase if other ecclesiastics jumped on the bandwagon.
In the end, As one of the authors of the study points out in a statementthe Catholic Church “has more than billion followers all over the world”. If only 28% of them avoided eating meat again on Fridays, they would be putting a lot of sticks in the wheels of climate change. It would only be necessary for Pope Francis to decide to take it as a general measure within his religion.
Other religions can also fight climate change
The authors of the study acknowledge as a limitation that they only focused on the Catholic religion. However, remember that other religions they have traditions in which the consumption of meat is restricted. For this reason, perhaps climate change could continue to be combated with these measures.
It would not be necessary to disguise the measures of climate activism. Practitioners of each religion might reduce their meat consumption simply in pursuit of their faith. What is clear is that religion is useless if there is no planet on which to practice it. Beyond crucifixions, that’s another good reason not to eat meat on Fridays.