Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

nature.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 577 posts

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#91

Post by nexensis »

Nyandalized wrote: post #2

I 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.

That's not entirely true - veganism has made massive strides in the last few years simply because more information is becoming available about the environmental, ethical and (arguably) health issues surrounding our heavy meat consumption.

Millions of people are already voluntarily reducing their consumption and now virtually every restaurant in the UK has vegan options, making it easier for more people to switch.

I live in the outskirts of a relatively small, low-income industrial city and there are signs outside small shops and restaurants everywhere promoting their new vegan menus. A traditional pub near me has no fewer than 14(!) plant-based main courses.

I'd love to see tax incentives that reflect the damage that the meat and dairy industry are doing (ending the massive government subsidies would be a good start), however the changes I've seen in the UK give me hope that the grassroots level can sway public opinion without forcing people to change via legislation.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#92

Post by elktea »

There's a good case to be made for humans being primarily meat eaters for much of our history and only eating plants as an alternative to starving - we certainly haven't had time to evolve to eat a vegetarian diet. Agriculture has only been around for a small fraction of our history and the skeletal record clearly shows how disasterous it was for our health.

The current 'plant based' fad diet recommendations are backed up by some very poor science and may be seriously unsuitable for humans and for children in particular, nutrition-wise. Animal agriculture is not even a major source of human emissions so to call for changes to our natural diet seems very premature.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#93

Post by leethargo »

glastra wrote: post #52
dkersten wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shift subsidies from meat to vegetables perhaps.

Which subsidies is meat getting? The ones that go to the agriculture industry responsible for feed? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_St...

I heard that corn farming is subsidized in the US, which is also used to feed cows?

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#94

Post by throwaway3957 »

jobigoud wrote: post #83
throwaway3957 wrote: post #24

I personally used to be very concerned about ressource efficiency. With a new doomsday message every day, I decided to make most out of my resources now until some eco-shmock is going to make it unavailable for me. I fly all the time and eat as good as I can. Maybe tomorrow it will be only a memory but that’s more than making a big trip other year and then nothing. Edit: BTW, this is not trolling. I represent a real…

Except this kind of reasoning accelerates the downfall. Very short sighted.

Well, I look at climate change heroes like Al Gore, jetting around the world and spending his resources graciously. If he can do it, why not me?

EDIT: also note that he has 3 rich kids. Is this more eco friendly than eating meat?

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#95

Post by ensiferum »

microtonal wrote: post #54
K0nserv wrote: post #23

I read somewhere that the one meat free day a week initative is laughable and we should really be aiming for one meat day a week. Personally I've switched to a mostly vegetarian diet in the past few years and when I do eat meat it's good high quality meat. Meat consumption seems like one of the easiest things governments could change to tackle climate change. Unlike cars and travel it's hard to make the argument that…

Unlike cars and travel it's hard to make the argument that humans depend on access to meat so making it 700% more expensive via tax would effectively shift consumption patterns with few if any downsides. The problem is that no politician (perhaps outside green parties) wants to do this, because of the fear of becoming unpopular. We simultaneously need a shift in people's attitudes towards meat. I have been a vegetari…

Because many vegetarians have elitist approach and meat eating people feel judged so they become defensive.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#96

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

saagarjha wrote: post #5

A lot of people seem to equate this to “they’re telling me to stop eating meat” and then fail to do anything: really, anything you do helps. Eat meat with every meal? Try skipping it for breakfast. Eat it every week? Try every other week. Nobody’s asking you to stop completely, at least not yet. (But if you want to, go right ahead!)

> A lot of people seem to equate this to “they’re telling me to stop eating meat”

Indeed, in fact the report's authors are keen to stress that this is not the case.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#97

Post by mklarmann »

elktea wrote: post #92

There's a good case to be made for humans being primarily meat eaters for much of our history and only eating plants as an alternative to starving - we certainly haven't had time to evolve to eat a vegetarian diet. Agriculture has only been around for a small fraction of our history and the skeletal record clearly shows how disasterous it was for our health. The current 'plant based' fad diet recommendations are back…

I challenge your opinion:

I wouldn’t call the world consensus of the IPCC poor science. It is actually the opposite: the best science we have available.

The report goes into depth about the health benefits these diets have also.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#98

Post by elktea »

jdc wrote: post #37
Nyandalized wrote: post #2

I 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.

Methane tax IMO

"Combining isotopic evidence from ground surface measurements with the newly calculated fire emissions, the team showed that about 17 teragrams per year of the increase is due to fossil fuels, another 12 is from wetlands or rice farming, while fires are decreasing by about 4 teragrams per year. The three numbers combine to 25 teragrams a year -- the same as the observed increase"[1]

The 'cows farting' story is not a major methane source.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-led-study-solves-a-met...

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#99

Post by hleszek »

tsherr wrote: post #9

The 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.

It is really sad that nothing is done to reduce overpopulation. Even if the whole world stopped eating meat, by 2050 when the world population will get close to 10 milliards we would produce as much CO2 as now. All the measures that we could take to reduce the personal impact will just delay the inevitable.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#100

Post by olakease »

arethuza wrote: post #18
Nyandalized wrote: post #2

I 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.

I think that is a good point. Also taxing "especially unfriendly environment products" would be great
Post reply on HN