Why did we make version 2?

Mostly because we had given away all our packs of the version 1 flashcards to educators and influencers, and we needed more cards at public events! At the same time we wanted to incorporate your feedback on small superficial changes that would allow the cards to be used in different types of games, and make them more readable. Meanwhile we've been improving our emissions database with new data and bug fixes, and we took up your suggestions for additional cards you wanted to see:  version 2 has 68 different foods, up from 56 foods in version 1. Specifically you can now find: lamb, cod, baked beans (in a can), lentils, chickpeas, peanuts, oat milk, french beans (seasonal), french beans (by air), sweetcorn, tomatoes (heated greenhouse), raspberries (seasonal), raspberries (by air) and tap water. Full details of changes are listed below. We have also added a licence to the pdf which clarifies that you are allowed to print and redistribute the cards, with attribution, see below. 

Download your set now

Our goal is to make tools that you can download and use for free. We are grateful for your no-strings-attached support so that we can continue to provide unbiased information based on the academic consensus. Download the free pdf here (subject to the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence CC BY-SA 4.0) - we printed them with the food+numbers on the front and the food (without numbers) on the back. (Or here is a version with 8 cards per sheet, also CC BY-SA.) We would really like to hear how you got on using the cards, especially if you use them at public events - your feedback helps us to improve the cards and get money to develop the cards further - thank you!

More information specific to version 2 of the cards

We are very grateful to the Take a Bite out of Climate Change team for all their great ideas and interactions with the public at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2019 and Bluedot Festival 2019, which got the cards reaching a much bigger audience and led to lots of ideas for how to improve the cards, including those we changed in v2, listed below. 

New in v2:​

• We have decided to distribute the cards subject to the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• New cards by popular request: lamb, cod, baked beans (in a can), lentils, chickpeas, peanuts, oat milk, french beans (seasonal), french beans (by air), sweetcorn, tomatoes (heated greenhouse), raspberries (seasonal), raspberries (by air), tap water. Thanks to Angelina Frankowska and Rosie Green for all their work on the numbers.

Health warnings:

• To calculate the number of minutes driving from the g CO2e we had to assume a type of car. Note that cars vary in their emissions per mile. For climate food flashcards version 2, we assumed a typical UK car which causes 155 g CO2e / km. (For climate food flashcards version 1, we assumed a very efficient 80 g CO2e / km, but noted that the average US car emits 250 g CO2e / km.
• We also needed to assume a car speed. In version 2 we assumed the car is driving at 40 mph (whereas for v1 we assumed 30 mph).
• For extreme enthusiasts and data geeks you can see the full information used to make the cards here.
• Please also note the general health warnings for the flashcards on our main climate food flashcards page.

Other improvements to the numbers in v2 compared to v1:

• Combining the changes in car type and car speed described above means that the minutes driving reduced by 2.5 times between v1 and v2, for a given g CO2e.
• We switched to using updated CO2e values for beef, salmon, chicken, cheese, peanuts, milk, soy milk, rice and sugar  from the detailed compilation by Poore & Nemek 2017 - you can download all their data for free from Joseph Poore's website.
• We switched to a more recent data source for the bread number, and switched to using UK values for the carrot, lettuce and apple numbers. 
• We switched to using a seasonal field-grown tomato as the default.
• The banana number uses a recipe combining the seasonal local number plus the shipping emissions so you can see the relative contribution in the spreadsheet. Similarly the bottled water number splits out the packaging so you can see the details in the spreadsheet.
• We fixed a mistake in the fizzy drink number in v1 (we had used values per bottle instead of per litre).
• We switched to using only a single study for the crisps value (whereas v1 averaged this and one other number), because it agreed better with another study (the 3 studies are cited in the 'full information' link above).
• The coffee number is now derived from adding instant coffee to boiling water, instead of using a composite value for black coffee from the literature.
• These numbers were propagated through to the foods we made using recipes e.g. cereal, toast, peanut butter, the latte and tea.
• You can see more details about which numbers we selected for v2 in the 'full information' link above. You can see the data sources we used in v1 from the equivalent sheet linked on the v1 page. 
• We fixed a bug in the water numbers - in v1 only green water was counted. This was a mistake. v2 water numbers include both green and blue water.
• New cards by popular request: lamb, cod, baked beans (in a can), lentils, chickpeas, peanuts, oat milk, french beans (seasonal), french beans (by air), sweetcorn, tomatoes (heated greenhouse), raspberries (seasonal), raspberries (by air), tap water.

Changes to the layout in v2 compared to v1:

• The boxes are printed instead of plain! Thanks to the fab design by Alana Kluczkovski! (and to our sponsors for the logos)
• There are now two introductory cards to give you some ideas / background info. Thanks to many people for requesting this.
• There are food pictures on the back of the cards, with no numbers, so you can now do a kind of guessing game with the cards. Thanks to several teachers for suggesting this.
• Planet icons next to the world/environment items (emissions, water) and person icons next to the nutritional information (thanks Eileen!). We moved water line up to be just underneath the emissions number by popular request, since that makes more sense.
• We switched to using the word "emissions" instead of carbon, to cover the fact that the CO2e values include contributions from all the greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide. 

Known bugs/ requests (please send us more as you spot them!):

• Some teachers have asked for 'sugar' to be included on the cards. The numbers are all there but we're not sure whether adding more info would detract from the look of the cards. We could add 'salt' (and loads of others!) - but where to stop? Suggestions / preferences welcome.
• We would be grateful if you would let us know any suggestions for the layout, or if you're puzzled by any of the numbers so we can spot any more bugs and note them here - and fix them for v3!

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