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Eating less meat ‘like taking 8m cars off road’
(www.bbc.com)
Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
It's about efficiency.
What's better? Forcing 1000000 people to eat bugs and beans, or summarily executing one Elon Musk?
You dont need to force anyone. People make their own decisions.
By the same reasoning, would you abolish elections because letting a single person decide is more efficient?
In theory, I agree with you, it is way more efficient to just ban cars, ban billionaires, distribute their money and end world hunger. But thats not realistic. There is absolutely no indication that any politician will even consider any of that, as long as the population still keeps driving around in massive SUVs, eating mass produced meat and buying everything from Amazon.
Man you guys sure love to jump to absurd conclusions using apples to oranges comparisons... First the guy comparing eating beans to child abuse, now you... It's almost as if trying to force your lame lifestyle on billions of people requires leaps of logic only a protein deprived brain can achieve.
First off, you can't measure the efficiency of one person deciding vs multiple.
You can, however, determine how much co2 one person emits.
There's also no indication that politicians will ever consider banning meat and yet here you are trying to make people eat beans on toast every meal.
Look, all I'm saying, if you truly care about the planet, instead of trying to force lifestyle changes on 99% of the population, there's 1% of them that emits 15% of CO2 without really contributing anything useful to society.
There's a quick ROI. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Or you could eat beans I guess.
You are strawmanning and coping so hard I dont have enough time to address all of that, so ill just pick a few.
Im not trying to force lifestyle changes on anyone and I dont know why youre claiming that. I am simply arguing which life choices can make a difference and which cant.
What exactly do you suggest the average person does to ensure the 1% stop emitting 15%? Vote green? That has worked wonderfully over the past 30 years right?
Is 'be the change you want to see in the world' supposed to be a summary of my arguments? Coz it sure as hell doesnt fit you attitude of 'dont change anything as long as rich people dont change'.
veganism has been around since the '40s and the meat industry grows every year.
Yes, yes you are. The only reason you are arguing right now is because you're mad that I refuse to stop eating meat while some rich fuck's personal jet flies around the world just so he can have a shit in a different toilet every day. If you didn't care about changing my way, you'd be doing something else.
You really want to get politicians involved, huh. You haven't figured out yet that they're part of the problem?
Be the change you want to see in the world is meant as an encouraging statement to go and take things into your own hands instead of relying on third parties to fix your problems.
You dont see a difference between 'making an argument' and 'forcing (because thats the exact word you used) someone to change their way of life'?
Also, I am not mad at you for eating meat. It is your own decision. Im not even vegan myself. Please dont project your insecurities on me. I am mad at big corporations and billionaires for causing misery for a large group of people, but for that to change, I sincerely believe that the attitude in our society has to change from blindly consuming everything we are offered to living and consuming more consciously. I will not start shooting billionaires (thats obviously what youre suggesting and I hope it is just a phase driven by interner anonymity and frustration).
And related to 3., taking matters into your own hands is my whole point, youre arguing against it.
Also, please answer 2, because youre constantly complaining about me suggesting that change comes from.the consumers, but you are completely avoiding suggesting any alternative.
Regarding 3, all I'm saying is that there's an easy way to reduce CO2 emissions by about 15% but all you're doing is waffling about beans.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
You should put 10000x times the effort trying to stop the 1% from releasing 15% of the CO2 than you do trying to convert me to your bean religion.