If you cook on a gas stove you’re burning fossil fuels right inside your kitchen, producing greenhouse gases and other harmful pollutants. It’s bad for the climate and bad for your health.
But not everybody can just toss out their stove and get a new one. It’s expensive. And, if you live in an apartment, removing appliances might not be an option at all.
Could a portable induction cooktop be the solution? Here’s what to know about gas and induction.
First, a dirty secret about gas stoves
Methane is the main component of natural gas, the stuff a stove runs on, and it’s even more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas in the short term.
What’s the climate impact of that methane? One recent study found that the annual methane emissions from all the gas stoves in the United States have roughly the same climate impact as the tailpipe pollution from 500,000 cars.
That’s a lot.
And, here’s the tricky thing: More than three-quarters of the methane emissions linked to gas stoves aren’t from cooking at all, according to Eric Lebel, lead author on the emissions study and senior scientist at PSE Healthy Energy, a nonprofit research group focused on the health and climate effects of energy production. The gas escapes unburned into the atmosphere from leaky pipes and fixtures.
“They’re always there,” Dr. Lebel said of methane emissions. So, more induction cooking and less gas cooking won’t automatically fix methane pollution overnight.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post Should I Get a Portable Induction Cooktop? appeared first on New York Times.
