Eat plants and go electric: how to break food TV’s bad climate habits

From product placement for unnecessary gadgets to meat-centred cooking, TV can make us think unsustainable is normal

When you log in to your favorite streaming service and pull up a cooking show, chances are you’re just looking for a bit of entertainment – maybe even to shut your brain off for a while. But if what you’re watching is constantly exposing you to images of sizzling steaks, roaring gas flames and all the fanciest new appliances, it might be reinforcing habits or norms that aren’t exactly climate friendly.

While there’s not enough data to pinpoint precisely what effect TV and film has on our behavior, experts say that what we see on screen can help shape our sense of what’s normal – and therefore acceptable. Unfortunately, what we’re shown on TV is rarely a great guide for how we might begin reducing the climate impacts of food, which accounts for somewhere between 25% and 33% of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions.