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

nature.com

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

#51

Post by throwaway3957 »

saagarjha wrote: post #38
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…

> I decided to make most out of my resources They’re not “your” resources: they’re shared among everyone, including future generations.

Well, so far I have no kids. My impact on the planet seems to be very temporarily and the damage I do will be forgotten in a hundred years. If I have 1.4 kids (my expected number of kids), it will take a bit longer but still damage is decreasing at fixed resource consumption per person.

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

#52

Post by glastra »

dkersten wrote: post #17
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.

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...

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

#53

Post by glastra »

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

Better dial down on the fiber intake, then!

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

#54

Post by microtonal »

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 vegetarian since I was 17 (I am 37 now). It has always fascinated me that becoming a vegetarian was only very little effort, but somehow people are extremely attached to meat. I never talk about being a vegetarian, but when people find out that I am a vegetarian, they often acts as being offended and having to defend themselves.

We need to show people that there is a middle way where you can still eat meat (e.g. maybe once a week) but still drastically decrease their footprint.

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

#55

Post by mklarmann »

K0nserv wrote: post #10
Asmod4n wrote: post #6

In 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.

The difference is that you don't consume butter in 250g quanities in a single sitting. Even if butter is worse the consumption patterns for butter are not those of beef.

Yes that is the point. If you account for calories, proteins and fats (as essential nutrients next to let’s say water and dry weight), butter doesn’t look that bad. It is still worse than average, so - check: app.eaternity.ch

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

#57

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

It's good to see them putting the emphasis on eating less meat rather than cutting it out entirely. I do eat meat but I find myself eating less and less these days as non-meat alternatives become more appealing to me. I also don't eat "cheap" meat as I'm concerned about animal welfare. But I do take offense to vegans telling me that I'm evil because I don't fully embrace their choice of lifestyle and I'm sure most meat-eaters feel the same way.

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

#58

Post by jazzabeanie »

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.

From the article: “But it would indeed be beneficial, for both climate and human health, if people in many rich countries consumed less meat, and if politics would create appropriate incentives to that effect.”

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

#59

Post by CommieDetector »

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.

What gives you the right to control what people eat?

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

#60

Post by mklarmann »

danmaz74 wrote: post #20
Asmod4n wrote: post #6

In 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.

Commonly and economic allocation is done. Each food is attributed those emissions to the share they have caused it by the money that was spend for it by the consumer. The question is: why was there a additional cow in the first place. Part of it was the butter.
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