perfect is the enemy of good.
I wish vegans and vegetarians would be a bit more willing to promote this viewpoint. It’s insane how many otherwise normal people will refuse a single meat-free meal for no reason other than identity politics.
perfect is the enemy of good.
I wish vegans and vegetarians would be a bit more willing to promote this viewpoint. It’s insane how many otherwise normal people will refuse a single meat-free meal for no reason other than identity politics.
I'm not vegetarian but it baffles my mind how many people are against not eating meat. Some people seem to have made eating meat their whole personality and it's insane to me. I don't always eat meat and actively try to reduce it. Personally I've only met vegetarians who encourage this, even if I'm not willing to fully commit. I'm trying to make meat more of a luxury for myself and I think it'd be nice if most people did so. Better for the climate and better for the animals.
My single greatest contribution for the climate is not having children.
All you fuckers act like your individual choice to not eat meat or have kids won't just have another eat up the same resources or have kids in your stead. We need smart people to have ethical kids and we need extreme systematic political change for any real affect whatsoever. Even if the ENTIRE WORLD dropped red meat, while still a good chunk, it's only 6% of our global annual emissions that we'd save. The top 3 sectors for emissions are energy transportation and general industry which makes up about 75% of global emissions, at about 25% each. The individual choices not mattering as much as political systematic change is huge, and that won't happen if the Trumpers are having most of the kids and we're having stupid divisive arguments about what our individual food choices should be.
It's enough to make it difficult to keep to 2C climate targets on its own. Its not something we should ignore - especially since much of it comes in methane emissions which means reduction in it can be felt quicker and reduce chance of hitting feedback loops. We must tackle all sources
To have any hope of meeting the central goal of the Paris Agreement, which is to limit global warming to 2°C or less, our carbon emissions must be reduced considerably, including those coming from agriculture. Clark et al. show that even if fossil fuel emissions were eliminated immediately, emissions from the global food system alone would make it impossible to limit warming to 1.5°C and difficult even to realize the 2°C target. Thus, major changes in how food is produced are needed if we want to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba7357
That's also on top of other environmental issues that it contributes to besides just climate change. Land usage, water usage, waste runoff
Transitioning to plant-based diets (PBDs) has the potential to reduce diet-related land use by 76%, diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by 49%, eutrophication by 49%, and green and blue water use by 21% and 14%, respectively, whilst garnering substantial health co-benefits
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/8/1614/html
And pesticide and fertilizer usage is lower
Thus, shifting from animal to plant sources of protein can substantially reduce fertilizer requirements, even with maximal use of animal manure
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344922006528
The diet containing more animal products required an additional 10 252 litres of water, 9910 kJ of energy, 186 g of fertilizer and 6 g of pesticides per week in comparison to the diet containing less animal products
Emissions are just a piece of it. There's land use, consequences of this land use, etc, which involve changes in rain patterns, soil acidification, and so forth.
I agree that systemic change is important, too, but 6% of global emissions attributable to a single factor is HUGE. Plus, it's not one or the other. Changes by individuals supports change at a systemic level.
That's almost certainly the biggest dietary change you can make.
But for overall impact, there's one winner and it's bigger than everything else put together.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/12/want-to-fight-climate-change-have-fewer-children
Capitalism hates this one weird trick.
The methodology here is kinda bs IMO.
They're adding up the emissions of the descendants and dividing that by a parents life expectancy.
However, if a society achieves net 0, then surely the emissions of every person there in are 0, so it's disingenuous to count them at today's rates.
Its an attempt to illustrate the environmental cost of over-population, but it needs to be considered within the context of that methodology.
Live Carfree (from petrol) - 2.4
Petrol to hybrid - 0.52
Electric Car to Carfree - 1.15
Seems they left out a pretty large item in "switch from petrol to electric - 1.25"
Ontop of that, factory farming is a lovecraftian horror that floods the universe with terrible agony. And there's very good reason to believe that the suffering of animals is as real and awful as yours or mine.
Here's the perspective that helped me the most with this:
Even cutting your meat consumption by half can have a significant impact. Start by ordering a vegetarian option instead of meat every once in a while. Experiment and find veggie alternatives you actually like, there are tons of options now. I heard someone refer to this as "microdosing veganism", and it can really help make the change less exhausting.
Over time, you might even notice your tastes start to shift and vegan options become actually enjoyable instead of a "sacrifice".
YSK you should stop guilting us peasants.
Everyone knows who's to blame.
Tired of this shit.
Let me tell you something, the consumer is to blame.
Nobody needs to orient their life around anything that they don't choose. For example I willingly gave up my car and picked a job near me so I didn't have to drive.
There wouldn't be a market for bottled water if people wouldn't drink the fucking shit.
This whole cognitive dissonance crap where you get to live a completely hedonistic trash-filled lifestyle, while justifying that you have the right because you're sad about your earning... I am sick to death of this attitude in people.
Oh and the shitty product that exists? I must consume it, it's not me for purchasing it and creating a market, it's them for serving my need & this market.
There wouldn't be a market for bottled water if water was clean and readily available for free.
The bottled water industry is way worse in Norway than in Spain for example.
YSK that doing nothing because a corporation is worse isn't going to fix this mess and your own lifestyle is still unsustainable if you live a typical western lifestyle.
Also if you just wanted to do a little better using this chart you could replace beef with bacon. Surely even the most meat obsessed individual can manage that?
I might be able get behind this argument when you talk about the rules on plastic straws. But red meat is terrible for the environment. As is driving cars. Especially ICE and especially when it's just one person, i.e. most work commutes. Another thing is heating/ cooling homes btw.
I personally think there are a lot of small things we should do as individuals but I understand not everyone might want to do them. I also agree that it's up to governments to do a lot of heavy lifting. That can be things like establishing district heating or improving public transport. But maybe it can also be adding higher taxes on red meat.
Sure, but like ~8 companies produce like 75% of the pollution. Their biggest con was shifting the responsibility to individuals to change their habits instead of forcing them to clean up their factories
What bother's me about these sorts of posts is they don't give people a consumption goal. Blindly telling everyone to consume less isn't exactly fair. Say, for example, there's person A who consumes 1 unit of red meat per month, and person B who consumes 100 units of red meat per month. If you say to everyone "consume 1 unit of red meat less per month", well, now person A consumes 0 units of red meat per month, and person B consumes 99 units of red meat per month. Is that fair? Say, you tell everyone "halve your consumption of red meat per month", well, now person A consumes 0.5 units of red meat per month, and person B consumes 50 units of red meat per month. Is that fair? Now, say, you tell everyone "you should try to eat at most 2 units of meat per month", well now person A may happily stay at 1 unit knowing that they're already below the target maximum, they may choose to decrease of their own accord, or they may feel validated to increase to 2 units of red meat per month, and person B will feel pressured to dramatically, and (importantly, imo) proportionally, reduce their consumption. Blindly saying that everyone should reduce their consumption in such an even manner disproportionately imparts blame, as there are likely those who are much more in need of reduction than others. It may even be that a very small minority of very large consumers are responsible for the majority of the overall consumption, so the "average" person may not even need to change their diet much, if at all, in order to meet a target maximum.
How much less red meat to offset all the private jet that flew to Venice for bezos’ wedding?
You're right, better do nothing.
Yes, that is great on an individual level.
But the best thing to do overall for our environment and climate is supporting protest movements, especially those employing nonviolent civil disobedience. Per pound/dollar/euro, they reduce emissions the most. But if you can, attend events in person.
This should not neglect that we need both individual and system change and they depend on each other. You should reduce your meat consumption and advocate for a world where everyone reduces meat consumption (and even become vegan or at least vegetarian).
But how am I supposed to get to work at the co2 factory in my house sized truck on time when those fucking hippies glue themselves to the road??
People will look at an image like this, read that 80% of deforestation in the Amazon happens for cattle, and go “I’m powerless, Exxon is bad” and continue to not only eat meat 5x a day but also actively try to convince other people that reducing their meat consumption is silly and they might as well keep eating it as much as they want because grocery stores will stock it anyway and Elon Musk rides a jet.
i’ve replaced beef in my diet with kangaroo for exactly this reason… it’s not the same, but it’s great in its own right and contains a load of iron. makes cutting beef out much easier
bonus: roo populations have to be managed otherwise in modern australia they tend to multiply uncontrolled and it’s a problem, so it’s either eat the meat or waste it… roo meat isn’t farmed
Taking planes, another big CO2 contributor. The sky is full of planes burning fuel.
Me ordering a vegetarian meal in the airplane.
Woman yelling at cat.jpg
Yeah let us do the microscopic differences while some industry totally ignores it...
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