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Meat production produces methane, not CO2. People yearn for simpler data and try to create equivalence (CO2e), but you cannot simply combine them without a loss
by mikedilger 6y ago
Meat production produces methane, not CO2. People yearn for simpler data and try to create equivalence (CO2e), but you cannot simply combine them without a loss of understanding/meaning. Methane is much more potent, but also more transient in the atmosphere than CO2 is. It stays in the atmosphere about 12 years.
Fossil-fuel production actually emits more methane than meat production does (but meat production is number two and a very big slice). So by cutting down on fossil fuels you will have a bigger impact on solving the methane problem than going vegetarian, and you'll also be solving the longer term CO2 problem. But every bit counts. Vegetarianism (or near-vegetarianism) is quite healthy too.
If we stopped meat production entirely right now, in a few decades we'd be back at ancient levels and the temperature would drop accordingly. But if you are worried about a climate apocalypse that our children and grandchildren are going to have to deal with, going vegetarian now is going to have little impact on that problem. CO2 is still the bigger and more long-term problem.
- andrekandre 6y agomethod though breaks down into co2 and water eventually, so its still a problem in the long term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane
- mikedilger 6y agoYou are correct that it breaks down into co2, but it is not part of the long term problem. The CO2 from methane breakdown was sourced from the atmosphere in the first place. And it goes back into the atmosphere. It's part of the permanent surface-atmosphere CO2 cycle. Atmospheric CO2 -> Grass -> Ruminant animal -> Methane -> Atmospheric CO2 Fossil fuels, OTOH, bring up CO2 from deep in the earth where it has been sequestered for eons. If we ate less meat and turned the pasture into woodland, we could sequester quite a lot of CO2 on the order of 50 years or so. Longer if we buried the wood. And I'm not against that. But it seems silly to me to focus on these minor hacks to surface cycles for temporary gains when the clear long-term problem is fossil fuel. We need to keep focusing on fossil fuel.
- andrekandre 6y ago> The CO2 from methane breakdown was sourced from the atmosphere in the first place. And it goes back into the atmosphere. It's part of the permanent surface-atmosphere CO2 cycle. intersting, i didnt know that > But it seems silly to me to focus on these minor hacks to surface cycles for temporary gains when the clear long-term problem is fossil fuel. We need to keep focusing on fossil fuel. definitely, agree 100%