this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

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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.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

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[–] Sterile_Technique 45 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Depends on where the meat is sourced. For example, the rich are made of meat: eating them would be incredibly beneficial to the environment.

[–] Wabbitsmiles 18 points 7 months ago

I'd reckon eating less in general is better for the climate our health

[–] FrankTheHealer 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I've been eating way less meat recently. I want to go fully vegan, but it's tough when Im forced to live with family members who refuse to adjust their habits.

I can't afford to buy all the fancy meat alternatives so I have to make small steps. PBJ instead of a ham and cheese sandwich. Avocado on sourdough instead of bacon and eggs etc

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

One meat alternative that's pretty affordable (and much better tasting and healthier than most TVP I've tried) is Butler Soy Curls. If you buy them in bulk from their website, it comes out to around $3.24 per pound of rehydrated soy meat for the 18-pack of individual bags (The big 12lb bag is an even better deal, coming in at around $2.43 per lb of rehydrated meat). If you rehydrate it with a vegan bullion cube, it tastes genuinely excellent, and the texture is incredibly meat like.

I also found Impossible burgers at costco for $6lb (which was quite a bit more than real meat patties, but so much less than they are any other store), and those were delicious, to the point that I prefer them to real meat.

Chickpeas can also work as a ground meat substitute for things like tacos and chili.

[–] FrankTheHealer 2 points 7 months ago

Thanks for the info, but I don't live in America lol.

Still though, might be a good tip if any other US based folks see this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Take it easy. Every vegan meal counts, and if you push too hard you might just give up entirely. You have to integrate the changes into your lifestyle, and that takes time. Try and become steady with a certain amount of plant-based food, add slowly. It should be fun and experimentation not work.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

found that most U.S. adults said they eat meat at least several times a week.

There are 21 meals in a typical week. "Several" is defined as more than two. So you could eat vegetarian for 85% of your meals and still be part of this metric.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

They broke it down by type of meat; eating chicken 5 times a week doesn’t have the same climate impact as eating pork 5 times a week.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 8 points 7 months ago

Also meat is expensive.

Chicken is still on the cheap side. But after all the food scares of recalling chicken, I've dropped that significantly.

Adding more veggies isn't just better for your body. It's better for your pocket.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

this article reads like a high school seniors persuasive essay. it's a gish gallop through half a dozen poorly supported arguments to go vegan. I was hoping it was.... news. from the ap.

what would such a news story say under this headline? how about "recent policy changes and ad campaigns have been shown to reduce emissions in the agriculture sector."

not only does it not say this, it is filled paragraph after paragraph with unrelated nonsense to the headline.

what a disappointment.

[–] paddirn 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Give up on beef and dairy if you want to start small, just reducing our use of cattle would probably help the most compared to other animals. Just working to replace those two in your diet will still take some time & commitment, but you can at least lean on other meats until you’ve gotten that part of your diet down.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

This is the way

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'm trying to reduce my meat intake. Mostly for moral reasons. It's hard though, almost every dish I love uses meat and I don't like any of the alternatives besides just beans.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I've been vegetarian for close to 20 years and started in the deep south, so I was used to basically every meal revolving around meat. It's definitely a big adjustment to cut out 100%.

Honestly you can get by really well just replacing meat with beans/chickpeas/etc. If you're really dying for more variety check out TVP (textured vegetable protein). It's just tofu that's been crumbled and dehydrated. Since it's been dehydrated it will absolutely suck up the flavor of anything you soak it in, and the texture in a soup/stew/curry/etc is very unnoticeable.

Check your store's Hispanic aisle or your local Hispanic grocery store to get it a bit cheaper. If you don't like size then soy curls are basically the same thing but larger.