I hadn't even thought about how my diet contributed to climate change but I can't be the only one.
How do you find out? Is there an app or something that'll tell you what your carbon footprint is based on your total lifestyle?
I can thoroughly recommend this little gem:
https://uk.bookshop.org/books/how-bad-are-bananas-the-carbon-footprint-of-everything/9781788163811We are generally really good at distinguishing orders of magnitude when it comes to money - a bottle of champagne is expensive and so is a car and so is a house but we know intuitively that there are orders of magnitude between them.
With carbon very few have the same intuition and this book aims to give you a better feel for the carbon impacts of everyday things, from a text message, to a pint of beer, to a swimming pool, to a forest fire. The chapters are oganised by emissions in carbon dioide equivalent*, from under 10 g, 10-100 g, 100 g to 1 kg and so on. This helps give a sense of the relative emissions for different products and activities.
*(Carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2e is a unit that accounts for the warming effect of non-CO2 greehouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide as well as the F-gases in our refrigerators.)Most of the carbon emissions in a fancy coffee for example is in the milk rather than the imported beans so a large latte might have 5 times the carbon impact as an americano with a bit of milk.
Paper and card packaging generally has a higher carbon footprint than plastic, partly because it gives off methane when it decomposes. There are other reasons for minimising plastics but where packaging increases the likelihood of the food being consumed rather than wasted (extended shelf life, protection from mauling) there is a net carbon benefit because more carbon is generally emitted in growing, processing and transport.
Spoiler: How bad are bananas?
Bananas are imported mostly from Central and South America which you might think makes them relatively carbon intensive but the fact that they are grown in natural sunlight rather than hothouses, can be transported efficiently due to their excellent shelf life and are high in carbs, fibre and vitamin C means that they are really rather good.