Live data from Hacker News

Treating beef like coal would make a big dent in greenhouse-gas emissions

economist.com

1–10 of 344 posts

Re: Treating beef like coal would make a big dent in greenhouse-gas emissions

#2
this is a half-baked ‘solution‘ that just makes eating meat a luxury. a thing only for the rich.

it’ll be like crimes that are punished by a fine - they just become the ‘fee’ that allows the propertied class to do whatever they want.

beef is deadly for humanity because of destructive water and land usage (Vice had a great video showing the Amazon deforestation due to beef production).

edit: my point is that the propertied class will lower wages and raise commodity prices to be able to pay to keep eating an unsustainable amount of beef. instead we should restrict or ban industrial animal agriculture, while investing in educational material to help society transition away from beef. that and regenerative agriculture, agro-forestry, etc.

Ernst Gotsch: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gSPNRu4ZPvE

Re: Treating beef like coal would make a big dent in greenhouse-gas emissions

#4
I can’t view the whole article due to the paywall, but I have to ask - where does this line of thinking lead? Does every pleasurable activity we might voluntarily undertake get scrutinized, regulated, or banned? I certainly hope not, since such losses of freedom can make the tyranny of the majority very real. It’s important that any potential policies are applied in a fair manner. For example, priced externalities shouldn’t be limited to just carbon dioxide or only applied to some things like cars or cows. In particular, those who support regulation or bans should also have their own favored things regulated similarly.

Re: Treating beef like coal would make a big dent in greenhouse-gas emissions

#5

this is a half-baked ‘solution‘ that just makes eating meat a luxury. a thing only for the rich. it’ll be like crimes that are punished by a fine - they just become the ‘fee’ that allows the propertied class to do whatever they want. beef is deadly for humanity because of destructive water and land usage (Vice had a great video showing the Amazon deforestation due to beef production). edit: my point is that the prope…

That's true of literally anything where the price reflects the externalities.

If it bothers you that the rich can afford to pay for the externalities, that's an argument against wealth inequality, not against pricing things correctly.

Re: Treating beef like coal would make a big dent in greenhouse-gas emissions

#7
I disagree, its a percentage of roughly 10% according to the EPA in 2019. Here are the EPA statistics. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emis... I am all for replacing them with native buffalo, but this is overemphasis on minute percentages, this information presented is much too technology based and not practical, it relies on assumptions about plant based foods and lab meat (farming crops is the backbone of civilization, it is not a new idea, meat replacements like tofu, seitan, and even quorn of more reasonable price exists but we should ignore it for the fantasies of lab grown meat) the problem is that nobody will do it, and even with existing solutions you can't force people to eat the way the author wants them to.

Electricty (such as that used for cooling), and transportation make up the most carbon emissions. This truck is one such solution for transportation and lower emmission, it uses compression rather than combustion for the engine, and "waste" is cold, so its used to cool the internals. The adoption of this would have a much better effect overall without human habits as resistance. https://atlasofthefuture.org/project/the-dearman-engine/

Improved infrastructure and improvements in efficiency in larger sector should be focused on rather than a nudged suggestion to change eating habits, the title is a pie in the sky, noit interested in practical applications.

Re: Treating beef like coal would make a big dent in greenhouse-gas emissions

#9

power is fungible. Nobody cares where their electricity comes from. Coal is failing because it is not price competitive. Food is not fungible, so I am not sure what point this is making.

It is moralizing food consumption, and suggests a complex solution that is not practical nor realistic because it is not interested in solutions.
Post reply on HN