3 ms·
>But, people don't like change that touches their food and leaders just won't even talk about it. How do we get people to be open to changes in stuff like this?
by scythe 5y ago
>But, people don't like change that touches their food and leaders just won't even talk about it. How do we get people to be open to changes in stuff like this?
You don't. I don't know where you get the idea that "leaders won't even talk about it", because I've been bombarded with articles about the GHG costs of agriculture for over a decade. It's everywhere.
And frankly, a lot of it is borderline deliberately misleading. Articles will choose to highlight the fact that about a quarter of global emissions are due to agriculture — but if you stick to developed countries, it's a tenth. You'll hear endlessly about how "potent" methane is, even though all climate models and serious scientific advocacy orgs have already taken this fully into account.
It goes on. The "plant-based" lobby is well-funded and manages to insert themselves all over the conversation while other industries like cement/steel/landfill/heating/shipping get little to no political or regulatory attention.
It's awfully convenient for the fossil fuel industry (responsible for three times as much GHG as everyone else combined) that climate change discussions are constantly diverted to the one topic which not only doesn't involve fossil fuels but also alienates practically everyone. I can think of no better way to sink Miami than to let the screeching vegans run the climate advocacy movement.
- mfer 5y agoYou bring up some points worth talking about. For example... > Articles will choose to highlight the fact that about a quarter of global emissions are due to agriculture — but if you stick to developed countries, it's a tenth. The reason this is discussed in percentages is that developed countries put out more GHG that developing countries. So, the percent from the food supply chain is a smaller percentage but still a large amount. There are also different GHGs. Those from our food supply chain, outside of CO2, last in the atmosphere less time and have a greater impact. This means that lowering them has a shorter time to seeing the impact. > The "plant-based" lobby is well-funded and manages to insert themselves all over the conversation while other industries like cement/steel/landfill/heating/shipping get little to no political or regulatory attention. If you follow the money you'll find that big AG is far more well funded than "plant-based". I recently learned that 60% of cholesterol studies are funded by the egg industry alone. Big AG is massively funded. Digging into the details rather than the surface discussions is illuminating.