this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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If you think veganism will save the world, you should probably look at a graph of greenhouse gas sources.
I don't drive. I've already done more than vegans ever will. Got an electric car? Good for you, but in the US that will still be powered by 60-70% coal and gas.
The only thing vegans have is the moral superiority on animal cruelty.
The only thing that will save the world is to stop burning fossil fuels. The only people that can force that change are governments. Once again those in charge have turned the people on each other. "Look at him, he's eating meat! Doesn't he know he's killing the planet?", while they're authorising another gas powerplant being built, or pushing back the banning of petrol cars by five years.
@Blackmist no, I don’t think veganism will save the world on its own. No single solution will… but veganism will be part of the solution. Animal farming contributes about 10% of the green house gasses, so it’s not an insignificant amount.
The world could ban office work in favour of remote work tomorrow. Eliminating the daily commute for a large portion of people would be a huge win fighting gas emissions. They can then repurpose those empty skyscrapers as lab grown meat factories.
Even there, the 10% (and I've seen figures between 8% and 15%) is mostly going to be from the extra fossil fuels used in the production of it, growing the corn, etc, that feeds them, transporting the feed, transporting all the livestock and meat around, refrigeration... Aside from the livestock breathing and farting, it's nearly all power.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba7357
Mind you, this is from 2 years ago: If we stopped all fossil fuels at that time, our diet would alone increase the temperature by 2°C
It is vastly proven by studies that vegans not only act different in regards of their diet but also in every other aspect, so you are not special. Vegans don't need more cars than any other group.
Even if we could afford to kill billions each year for taste, you yourself stated that it is morally preferable not to. So what is your excuse?
I like meat and dairy and I don't care about the moral part of it at all.
If it's available for me to buy, I will continue to eat it.
It really is as simple as that.