Dark chocolate vs Milk: carbon footprint
Dark chocolate or Milk? Here's what each one costs the climate, measured per kilo over its whole life.
Dark chocolate runs about 46.65 kg CO₂e a kilo. Milk runs 3.15.
Dark chocolate is the heavier choice, about 15× Milk.
Swap Dark chocolate for Milk and you cut about 43.5 kg a kilo, near 93% off.
Per kilo, that gap is a 255 km drive in a diesel car.
Dark chocolate: Cocoa is tied to deforestation, so a chocolate bar hides a surprisingly heavy footprint.
Milk: Same cows, same methane. Milk and cheese carry it in every glass and slice.
Per-kilo numbers skip portion size and how the food was farmed, so take them as the shape of things, not the last word.
More match-ups
Figures from OWID / Poore & Nemecek 2018, licensed CC-BY 4.0.
How we get these numbers: Methodology.