“Effective” is a relative term. Going meatless won’t fix the underlying problems that allowed factory farming to destroy the world. Why aren’t electric cars mandated? Why do we pipe natural gas into homes? The same shortsighted, profit-motivated decision processes will still exist even if we make better personal choices.
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threeonefour@piefed.ca 1 day ago
Other than voting for politicians that put climate change as their top issue, not eating meat is another effective method that literally anyone can do without affecting their life. Things like buying an electric car or not using natural gas to heat your home might not be options available to everyone. We can all live normal fulfilling lives without meat. You'll probably also save a decent amount on groceries, so that's a bonus!
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 day ago
stickly@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Another way to look at it: we’re already over the climate brink. Your future won’t have cheap/stable meat access no matter what. We can either clutch our hotdogs right up until supply chain collapse makes mass meat farming untenable or proactively discard them to make a slight difference (in conjunction with other big changes).
Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Same with cars, even if we completely ignore climate change we maybe got a century left of oil before it’s too expensive to drive. By not investing in other transportation now we’re just making it more painful when we finally do rip the bandaid off.
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The water wars will probably kill us off before we run out of oil.
missfrizzle@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Why do we pipe natural gas into homes?
puts on Technology Connections hat
because heat pumps and green energy weren’t a thing in the US until recently!
heat efficiency is weird. electric heaters are 100% efficient, but 1) they’re only as efficient as the generator, and 2) transmission losses add up. and until recently, most power was generated by coal and natural gas. turning those into electricity is lossy, since lots of energy is lost as waste heat. so why not send the gas you were going to burn for electricity directly to the customer?
heat pumps can be 300-400% efficient, since they move heat - from outdoors, into the home - rather than generating it. they can get >100% efficiency even in cold climates! but stupidly the US never bothered make our air conditioners reversible, or every home would have a heat pump by now.
and with solar/wind (for peak) + nuclear or grid storage (for base) power, we can now get rid of natural gas. …once we give everybody heat pumps. …and shutdown our gas generators. …we should probably get on that.
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 day ago
No, I’m sorry, the answe is “profit.” The US has a lot of natural gas, and the people who force it out of the ground bought enough politicians to build pipelines everywherr so we could sell gas to more people. Electric and heat pumps are far more efficient, but the cost per btu of heat is so cheap for natural gas that it doesn’t make sense to switch to electric even when the energy costs are low, and the cost to install a heatpump or geothermal might reduce monthly costs, but it would be decades before it pays for itself. Most people don’t expect to live in a house long enough to reap the benefits of more efficient investments.
Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
And not littering won’t fix the underlying problems of single use plastics wrapping everything we touch, and the corporations that want to keep it that way. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t litter.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Absolutely true. However, making better personal choices does make these systemic problems easier to solve. When people know vegetarians, meatless meals become more comprehensible. When less people use piped natural gas there’s less justification to keep this utility around and reduces the scramble to buy electric appliances if it does shut down. Taking public transit where available funds further public transit, justifies its existence, incentivises more transit centered development, and lets similar places see that that service is in demand.
Capitalism and democracy respond to perceived demand. Not what you want, but what they believe that the masses are willing to act on.
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
an electric car is a terrible way to reduce your carbon footprint. simply using a personal motor vehicle less is a much more effective method that anybody can do
threeonefour@piefed.ca 1 day ago
That's true. Using your vehicle less is good. Not using one at all is even better. The same logic applies to eating meat. Less meat is good. No meat is even better. Your argument is the exact same argument for not eating meat. You cannot believe one is true without necessarily believing the other to be as well.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
You’ll probably also save a decent amount on groceries, so that’s a bonus!
Unfortunately, red meat is subsidized in the US so that it’s dirt cheap, so it’s often a “budget” option for poorer households. This is despite the well-known health downsides of red meat consumption. Red (cow, pig) meat consumption leads to high blood pressure, which can shorten lifes.
db2@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Image
threeonefour@piefed.ca 1 day ago
I feel like if I said "vaccines are safe and effective" you could respond with the same image and people would clap because that's how conversations about important issues go today.
db2@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Whatever dude. You’re the one who’s delusionally posting silly statements, and then decided to double down on it by dragging vaccine conspiracy nonsense in to it.
Touch grass bro.
threeonefour@piefed.ca 1 day ago
Still waiting for any kind of counter argument. Becoming a vegetarian is something anyone can do immediately and cuts their ties to an industry that is making climate change worse. Not driving a car or only using sustainable energy sources are great but not everyone can immediately switch away from these things.
Kurzgesagt has a video where they present a lot of research data on the topic if anyone is interested in sources to back up claims. I like the video because it's prefaced by saying the hardest part of the topic is getting people to not be offended at the idea of becoming a vegetarian, or even just eating less meat. It's difficult enough to get people to change their diets when it's causing a direct negative effect on their own health, let alone some abstract negative effect on the planet. I understand. Nobody wants to change their diet, but it's something people are capable of doing, and with so many benefits that come with it, I encourage people to at least give it a thought.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Can you explain to me what is delusional here? I don’t get it.
stickly@lemmy.world 1 day ago
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Way to tell on yourself lmao