How about we put a ban on UN officials’ private jets first?
That's a good idea, but eating less meat is even better, because that can reduce 8Gt CO2/yr. Banning private jets would not reduce 8Gt CO2/yr. It is important to be quantitative here.
Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet
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Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet
#12How about we put a ban on UN officials’ private jets first?
Sorry, but this is really cheap criticism that detracts from the main point. Of course, their private jets (if they have them) should be banned, sure. But this is an invisible blip on the radar compared to the climate impact of the meat industry (or air travel in general).
Such messages only cause people to postpone the need to take real action. And we need to take real action now if we even want a chance to dampen the effects of climate change (let alone reverse it).
Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet
#13I don't think people will stop consuming meat if you ask them nicely. You have to make decisions that will hurt the meat industry and make it infeasible. This would likely best be achieved through slowly dropping tax incentives, and transferring them over to alternatives so that people have something equally economical to today's meat.
There is no need to go from one extreme to the other. This is about eating "less" meat.
People do not traditionally eat that much meat because meat used to be expensive and its supply limited.
This is still the case in poor countries.
In developed countries, people started to eat more and more meat as they got richer because we naturally like meat and because of clever marketing.
We now eat too much meat, and also consume too much dairy (adults don't need to drink any milk and many don't digest it well, by the way). If people just stopped eating meat at every meal or every day, consumption would drastically drop without too much of a change in daily life.
One solution would be measures to increase prices but that is a political minefield.
Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet
#14How about we put a ban on UN officials’ private jets first?
While the aviation industry, and as you point out low capacity flights in particular, is a major perpetrator for high CO2 emissions, the food industry is the number one area where your average consumer can make a big impact.
I agree with you that governing bodies should be putting more pressure on the excesses of the wealthy and on industry, but changing industry practices and consumer behaviour are not mutually exclusive, especially when we should be doing everything we can on all fronts to overcome this crisis.
Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet
#15I am excited about the work Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are doing in this space. Creating alternatives with same nutrient content and similar taste but 1/10th the land usage and consuming less of other resources.
Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet
#16I don't think people will stop consuming meat if you ask them nicely. You have to make decisions that will hurt the meat industry and make it infeasible. This would likely best be achieved through slowly dropping tax incentives, and transferring them over to alternatives so that people have something equally economical to today's meat.
no the question is do we support from the "west" that everyone gets the same share of the cake which means we have to change dramatically our way of living or do we want to keep it for ourselves.
If every CN or IN guys lives on the same standard as we in EU/USA the world will be gone in 60 seconds.
Let discuss on that level instead of picking out all kind of less relevant topics each time.
Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet
#17I don't think people will stop consuming meat if you ask them nicely. You have to make decisions that will hurt the meat industry and make it infeasible. This would likely best be achieved through slowly dropping tax incentives, and transferring them over to alternatives so that people have something equally economical to today's meat.
Shift subsidies from meat to vegetables perhaps.
Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet
#18I don't think people will stop consuming meat if you ask them nicely. You have to make decisions that will hurt the meat industry and make it infeasible. This would likely best be achieved through slowly dropping tax incentives, and transferring them over to alternatives so that people have something equally economical to today's meat.
Make much higher welfare standards for farm animals a requirement - making meat much more expensive, reducing consumption.
Sounds like a win win to me.
Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet
#19The UN doesn't have the guts to target the task issue: too many humans. And recommend the only solution: one child per couple until we get down to about half the current population.
This would ignore the fact that almost all emissions are caused by the richest 10%. Reducing this population would be more effective.
Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet
#20In the last couple articles I've read to reduce your own carbon footprint I've found one thing is sadly missing most of the time: butter. It's way worse than beef. One kg butter blasts 24kg CO2 into the air before it gets to you, with beef it's around 13kg.
How so? Butter is a side product from many dairy processes, eg producing parmesan and skimming milk.