4 ms·
I think the major point that people miss is that there is a thing called the "Carbon Cycle"[0] which basically stipulates that all carbon that already exists in
by dijit 4y ago
I think the major point that people miss is that there is a thing called the "Carbon Cycle"[0] which basically stipulates that all carbon that already exists in the system will continually be transformed into different things and then back into carbon (and the inverse). This is pretty ordinary and cows are a part of that. Though the effects of transforming a lot of carbon at once might be profound and dangerous.
The major issue is that we're digging up shit loads of carbon and releasing it, which is the much more dangerous thing and reframing the argument to be against meat because meat has a carbon cost is like saying that the mountains are causing water levels to rise because "water comes from the mountains" (though, as part of the water cycle).
[0]: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/carbon-cycle.html https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/carbon-cycle.html
- makerofspoons 4y agoThe problem is the animals eating feed grown with fossil fuel derived fertilizers: https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/fertilizer-and-climate-change https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/fertilizer-and-climate-ch... Cattle eating grass is one thing- industrial feed lots are another and they're needed to produce beef at the scale humans are eating it.
- dijit 4y agoIt cant possibly be as simple as that can it? What’s wrong with banning those feeds and letting the price normalise causing the rate of consumption to drop to sustainable levels? I must be missing something?
- uoaei 4y agoYou're missing politics. Oil+gas companies, and fertilizer producers, are deep in the supply chain and are thus embedded in the governing bodies (because no country is very good at preventing corruption). Things only change when those companies let them change.
- dijit 4y agothat. is… upsetting.
- thinkcontext 4y agoThe people that like cheap meat won't like that, a lot. Ag lobbies are powerful enough no one in the US would dare propose anything like that. Even in climate conscious EU a much more modest, roundabout way of addressing part of the problem of ag emissions (nitrate levels) has been met with massive farmer protests.