While we’re mostly beyond the practice of grilling game over a fire (with the notable exception of special events like the Fourth of July) modern-day cooking still results in the emission of an alarming amount of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. Gas ovens vent CO2 directly into the atmosphere, along with water vapor—another greenhouse gas, though a less worrisome one than CO2. A meal that takes an hour to cook in an electric oven may seem cleaner, but in reality about 2.7 pounds of CO2 are produced to generate the necessary electricity.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways to decrease your culinary carbon footprint without resorting to raw food. If you happen to have a solar cooker lying around, then the CO2 production will be nil, with the exception of a tiny amount that may be released from your food as it cooks. A toaster oven costs only 1.3 pounds of CO2 for 50 minutes of use, and a microwave oven just 0.5 pounds for 15 minutes or so. If you’re willing to wait a bit, a slow cooker or crock pot is also a great deal, costing just under a pound of CO2 over the course of about seven hours. Minute per minute, the slow cooker class wins hands down when it comes to CO2 production.
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