this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2024
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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: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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The meat and dairy industry is not 'climate neutral', despite some eye-catching claims (theconversation.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] set_secret 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I largely agree with you. Blaming individuals is often a deflection from larger industrial responsibilities. Yes, consumer choices matter, but the real heavyweight is industrial emissions. And oh, the irony of the 'eco-friendly' vegan industry churning out carbon-intensive faux meats. It's less about what's on the plate and more about who's cooking the books.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Plant-based foods of any kind are dramatically lower in nearly every environmental metric. They are not carbon-intensive at all

If I source my beef or lamb from low-impact producers, could they have a lower footprint than plant-based alternatives?The evidence suggests, no: plant-based foods emit fewer greenhouse gases than meat and dairy, regardless of how they are produced.

[...]

Plant-based protein sources – tofu, beans, peas and nuts – have the lowest carbon footprint. This is certainly true when you compare average emissions. But it’s still true when you compare the extremes: there’s not much overlap in emissions between the worst producers of plant proteins, and the best producers of meat and dairy.

https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat

EDIT: I should also mention the emissions also mostly come from what's produced rather than in differences in things like transportation, processing, etc.

Transport is a small contributor to emissions. For most food products, it accounts for less than 10%, and it’s much smaller for the largest GHG emitters. In beef from beef herds, it’s 0.5%.

Not just transport but all processes in the supply chain after the food leaves the farm – processing, transport, retail, and packaging – mostly account for a small share of emissions.

https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local