Mother Jones has a series of graphics highlighting how chickens are taking over the world sparked by a ‘chicken rescue’.
the Northern California animal sanctuary Animal Place will airlift—yes, you read that right: airlift—1,150 elderly laying hens from Hayward, California, to Elmira, New York, in an Embraer 120 turbo-prop.
The price? $50,000.
And, that is the “cost” focus from Mother Jones, with the authors noting that “obviously, this isn’t the most efficient way to spend your chicken-helping money” providing alternative “chicken-friendly” options for using the $50,000 such as “You could buy flocks of chicks for 2,500 farmers in the developing world through the charity Heifer International.”
How about a different impact as to “cost”? What is the societal cost from this “rescue”? Of course, there is the opportunity cost as to the alternative (better) uses for the money (such as those Heifer chicks …), but what about true costs? One shorthand, to capture a portion of those costs would be the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) from the movement of these chickens.
Thus, the question: how many gallons of fuel will be burnt by the aircraft carrying the 1150 hens?
- It is 2121.2 nautical miles (2442.7 miles, 3931.1 kilometers), flight distance, between Hayward and Elmira.
- An Embraer 120 travels 0.94 nautical miles per gallon (0.40 kilometers per litre).
- With well to blade calculations, a gallon of fuel burnt by an aircraft produces roughly 25 pounds of CO2.
Thus,
- 2121.2 divided by 0.94 = 2400.63 gallons of fuel
- 2400 gallons x 25 lbs of CO2 = 60,000 pounds or 30 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Thus, without considering all of the other energy uses (driving around to pick up / deliver the chickens; flying the empty aircraft to Hayward, etc …), this “rescue mission” will create 30 tons of carbon dioxide emissions (along with other pollution).
While debate exists over the exact number, the SCC might range from $33 per ton to well over $1000. In an highly optimistic case, which truly discounts many climate costs, we are thus talking about this hen rescue creating a cost from about $1000 on society (including costs, through climate chaos, on animals — chickens and otherwise) to something on the north side of $30,000. If we take that second number, this tells us that not only is Animal Place willing to spend over $40 per hen just on the transport costs but is willing to impose costs of over $25 per hen on society — just from the fuel burned by the aircraft one way. Those are, well, simply unacceptable costs …