The debate on climate change has given rise to a fresh and urgent demand by activists. The German chapter of the animal rights organization PETA has taken it upon itself to promote a new idea to surpass some of the boldest demands to date: to have meat-eating men pay a hefty meat tax or ban them from procreating altogether.
To justify this demand, PETA refers to a new study published in PLOS ONE that indicates that men’s consumption of meat, compared to that of women, leads to a 41% higher rate of CO₂ (‘greenhouse’ gas) produced by men. The animal rights organization also quotes the French Green politician Sandrine Rousseau as saying that a piece of meat on the grill “should not be considered a symbol of masculinity anymore.” The campaign manager for PETA Germany, Daniel Cox, released a press statement in which he commented on the findings of the study:
Who doesn’t know them, those suburban dads handling beer bottles and grill tongs, sizzling 70-cent sausages on their 700-euro grill? When a visitor adds zucchini, it is eyed with suspicion and tolerated reluctantly. The fact that the grill masters of Germany believe that they have to prove their masculinity to themselves and their conspecifics through their consumption of meat is not only to the chagrin of the animals. Now there is scientific proof that toxic masculinity also harms the climate. Therefore, a hefty meat tax of 41% for men would be appropriate. A ban on sex or procreation for all meat-eating men would also be purposeful in this context. After all, every child not born saves 58.6 tons of CO2 equivalents per year. To all fathers still grilling meat who nevertheless wish to have children with a future worth living on a habitable planet, we recommend changing their lifestyle by participating in our free vegan starting program.”
In light of such drastic scientific data, the German Kreiszeitung decided to look into the numbers and found that other studies came to similar conclusions, but for different reasons than those suggested in the PLOS ONE study. A Swedish study from 2021 attributed a higher production of CO₂ to men also, but for their relatively higher consumption of fuels such as gasoline and diesel. The Kreiszeitung concluded that depending on the desired narrative, one could always find a study to support it.
In an interview with BILD, PETA director Cox claimed that “men are far worse for the climate than women because they’re eating too much meat.” He called upon women to enter a “sex-strike” to “save the world,” but went even further in his ambitions to plan the bedroom schedules of meat-eaters by giving carnivores a ray of hope: “If you eat once a month meat, you’ll be able to have sex once a month, too.”
The proposal by PETA created ample opportunity for German news media to poll people on the street on the question of eating meat. At least one politician of the center-Right CSU, Dorothee Bär, found Cox’s ideas “repulsive.” She outright rejected his claim that children are a CO₂ burden and pointed out that they are, instead, the “climate saviors of the future.” Other politicians of the CSU referred to PETA’s suggestion as “complete nonsense;” and accused the activists of “hatred of democracy.”
