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0 pointsMrVandemar2y ago0 comments

>You mean, like, switching to a vegan diet, using public transport and stop flying? Those seem radical enough for most people in the Northern Hemisphere.

One of these things is not like the other.

Vegan diets — and I support them in principle — do little or nothing to reduce carbon emissions.

Vegan diets just don't deliver enough calories and essential nutrients without (industrial) supplementation, and veganism depends on broadscale monoculture crops with massive fossil-fuel inputs to grow, harvest and distribute, and exist in places largely that used to be healthy ecosystems supporting animal life.

Nice idea, and I'm cool with the overall philosophy and principles of veganism, but yoking it to climate activism, conflating it with strategies to "save the planet" is misguided.

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myshpa2y ago

Such a load of bull. I'm sick of people ignoring the science. Educate yourself before writing anything next time. It's clear as day you're wrong. It's the most impactful thing you can as an individual do.

We need to stop fossil fuels asap, stop animal ag (deforestation, pollution, biodiversity loss, etc.), reform agriculture (soils, biodiversity, poisons) and start reforesting/afforesting.

There are tons of studies that show it's the best way to stop the climate crisis.

How Compatible Are Western European Dietary Patterns to Climate Targets? Accounting for Uncertainty of Life Cycle Assessments by Applying a Probabilistic Approach

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14449

Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba7357

Biodiversity conservation: The key is reducing meat consumption

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/

Which Diet Has the Least Environmental Impact on Our Planet? A Systematic Review of Vegan, Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diets

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4110/htm

The way we eat could lead to habitat loss for 17,000 species by 2050

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22287498/meat-wildlife-bi...

Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss

https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-glob...

If the world adopted a plant-based diet we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares. The expansion of land for agriculture is the leading driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss.

https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets

Rapid global phaseout of animal agriculture has the potential to stabilize greenhouse gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 percent of CO2 emissions this century

https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal...

Which Diet Has the Least Environmental Impact on Our Planet? A Systematic Review of Vegan, Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diets

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4110/htm

Without Changing Diets, Agriculture Alone Could Produce Enough Emissions to Surpass 1.5°C of Global Warming

https://www.wri.org/insights/without-changing-diets-agricult...

Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba7357

Livestock and climate change: what if the key actors in climate change are... cows, pigs, and chickens?

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Livestock-and-climate-...

The carbon opportunity cost of animal-sourced food production on land

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00603-4

Study finds forest protection successfully leads to reduced emissions at global scale

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-forest-successfully-emissions-...

Ygg22y ago

> Such a load of bull. I'm sick of people ignoring the science. Educate yourself before writing anything next time

What are chances that everyone globally will just switch to vegan diet to save on CO2 before 2050 or whatever end date? My fair estimate is zero.

It's like wishing people aren't lazy or corrupt or that are more honest. To quote the poet "You don't get what you want".

myshpa2y ago

Animal ag. is the leading culprit of the mess we're in (together with fossil fuels, ofc). The reason nobody at political level talks about it is because they feel it's a political suicide.

If there was a significant portion of the population with changed habits (and numbers of vegans and vegetarians are rising fast in the last few years, so much that it's affecting sales of meat and dairy already), the abolishing of animal ag subsidies will be much more probable.

Then without subsidies the reduction in consumption is automatic - the price would take care of that. 90% (IIRC) of corporate profits in animal ag comes from subsidies.

Otherwise ... to quote the poet ... "You'll get what you don't want".

2 more replies

chewz2y ago

> I'm sick of people ignoring the science. Educate yourself before writing ...

Oh science again... You totalitarians are always calling for science when lacking arguments to convince people....

Nazism was supposedly based on race science. Communism was entirely scientific. So were COVID lockdowns.

And now climate science. It isn't science it is just weird millenarian religion. Please stop propagating your religious beliefs on HN.

myshpa2y ago

Science isn't about belief or religion; it's about objective inquiry and understanding the world based on evidence.

It's okay to question and be critical, but dismissing scientific consensus without proper examination won't lead us anywhere.

Let's put aside the conspiracy theories and embrace the wonders of knowledge and progress that science offers ;)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

myshpa2y ago

We need to stop fossil fuels asap, stop animal ag (deforestation, pollution, biodiversity loss, etc.), reform agriculture (soils, biodiversity, poisons) and start reforesting/afforesting.

There are tons of studies that show it's the best way to stop the climate crisis.

How Compatible Are Western European Dietary Patterns to Climate Targets? Accounting for Uncertainty of Life Cycle Assessments by Applying a Probabilistic Approach

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14449

Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba7357

Biodiversity conservation: The key is reducing meat consumption

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/

Which Diet Has the Least Environmental Impact on Our Planet? A Systematic Review of Vegan, Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diets

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4110/htm

The way we eat could lead to habitat loss for 17,000 species by 2050

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22287498/meat-wildlife-bi...

Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss

https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-glob...

https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets

Rapid global phaseout of animal agriculture has the potential to stabilize greenhouse gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 percent of CO2 emissions this century

https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal...

Which Diet Has the Least Environmental Impact on Our Planet? A Systematic Review of Vegan, Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diets

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4110/htm

Without Changing Diets, Agriculture Alone Could Produce Enough Emissions to Surpass 1.5°C of Global Warming

https://www.wri.org/insights/without-changing-diets-agricult...

Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba7357

Livestock and climate change: what if the key actors in climate change are... cows, pigs, and chickens?

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Livestock-and-climate-...

The carbon opportunity cost of animal-sourced food production on land

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00603-4

Study finds forest protection successfully leads to reduced emissions at global scale

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-forest-successfully-emissions-...

Ygg22y ago

> Such a load of bull. I'm sick of people ignoring the science. Educate yourself before writing anything next time

What are chances that everyone globally will just switch to vegan diet to save on CO2 before 2050 or whatever end date? My fair estimate is zero.

It's like wishing people aren't lazy or corrupt or that are more honest. To quote the poet "You don't get what you want".

myshpa2y ago

Animal ag. is the leading culprit of the mess we're in (together with fossil fuels, ofc). The reason nobody at political level talks about it is because they feel it's a political suicide.

Then without subsidies the reduction in consumption is automatic - the price would take care of that. 90% (IIRC) of corporate profits in animal ag comes from subsidies.

Otherwise ... to quote the poet ... "You'll get what you don't want".

2 more replies

chewz2y ago

> I'm sick of people ignoring the science. Educate yourself before writing ...

Oh science again... You totalitarians are always calling for science when lacking arguments to convince people....

Nazism was supposedly based on race science. Communism was entirely scientific. So were COVID lockdowns.

And now climate science. It isn't science it is just weird millenarian religion. Please stop propagating your religious beliefs on HN.

myshpa2y ago

Science isn't about belief or religion; it's about objective inquiry and understanding the world based on evidence.

It's okay to question and be critical, but dismissing scientific consensus without proper examination won't lead us anywhere.

Let's put aside the conspiracy theories and embrace the wonders of knowledge and progress that science offers ;)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse