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Note that the areas of the three largest deviations are, in order: Biosphere Integrity, Novel Entities (synthetic chemical & processes), and Biogeochemical Flow

by toss1 3y ago

Note that the areas of the three largest deviations are, in order: Biosphere Integrity, Novel Entities (synthetic chemical & processes), and Biogeochemical Flows. The entire ecosystem on which we depend for sustenance is an extremely complex web of interlocking dependencies, from plankton to pollinators, to soil microbiota, to temperature & hydration, and so on, endlessly. This is the food web. If it collapses, we as a species are beyond fooked. Because it is so complex (and even something relatively simple such as CO2-driven greenhouse effect climate change is too complex for the lower half of the population to understand), it is barely even discussed. But make no mistake, the food web is under massive assault from all kinds of human activities (and even the artificial agriculture web is coming up against the hard limit of a phosphorus crisis). This is likely to be a sooner and more catastrophic failure than the climate crisis. The Fine Article nicely clarifies some of the threat.

myshpa 3y ago
> This is the food web One major contributor to the overshoot is our current agricultural practices, with animal agriculture being a primary offender. It's responsible for a significant amount of greenhouse gases, it's a leading driver of biodiversity loss and deforestation, and it contributes to soil degradation and water pollution. https://ourworldindata.org/land-use https://ourworldindata.org/land-use https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/10/World-Map-by-Land-Use-01.png https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/10/World-Map-by-Land... BIODIVERSITY LOSS https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01448-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01448-4 Humans are driving one million species to extinction - UN backed report finds that agriculture is one of the biggest threats to Earth’s ecosystems https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-global-food-system-primary-driver-biodiversity-loss https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-glob... Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/ Biodiversity conservation: The key is reducing meat consumption DEFORESTATION https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation Drivers of Deforestation - combined, beef and oilseeds for animal feed account for nearly 60% of deforestation https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/whats-driving-deforestation https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/whats-driving-deforestation Just four commodities — beef, soy, palm oil, and wood products—drive the majority of tropical deforestation. Beef - 2.71 million hectares / year Soy - 480,000 ha / year (77% for animal feed) Palm Oil - 270,000 ha / year Wood - 380,000 ha / year (but probably more) GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS CO2 - 16.5+% animal agriculture (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352100490_Emissions_from_Animal_Agriculture-165_Is_the_New_Minimum_Figure https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352100490_Emissions...) Methane - animal agriculture leading driver, https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector#methane-ch4-emissions-by-sector https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector#methane-ch4-e... N20 - animal agriculture leads again, https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector#nitrous-oxide-n2o-emissions-by-sector https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector#nitrous-oxide... SOLUTIONS We can significantly reduce our footprint by adopting plant-based diets, reforesting the pastures (more than 50% of which were originally forests), and allowing biodiversity to recover. https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets If the world adopted a plant-based diet we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00603-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00603-4 The carbon opportunity cost of animal-sourced food production on land - shifts in global food production to plant-based diets by 2050 could lead to sequestration of 332–547 GtCO2, equivalent to 99–163% of the CO2 emissions budget consistent with a 66% chance of limiting warming to 1.5 °C https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/917471 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/917471 Feeding 10 billion people by 2050 within planetary limits may be achievable
- analognoise 3y ago
  Humanity would rather go to war to thin our numbers than give up eating meat. The only viable method is lab grown meat that tastes exactly the same, same texture, and is cheaper. That's it. People have real stuff in their lives - they're not worried about planetary survival in 100 years, they're worried about next months rent, etc.
  - toss1 3y ago
    Perhaps note that only 12% of Americans eat 50% of the beef. That group is men between 50-66 years old. The remaining half is spread among the other 88%. Convince that 12%, or let them age out, and half the problem goes away. [0] https://phys.org/news/2023-08-mere-americans-nation-beef-significant.html https://phys.org/news/2023-08-mere-americans-nation-beef-sig... Edit: Fixed link — Thx myshpa! (still looks truncated, but seems to work now)
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - Mountain_Skies 3y ago
      >on a given day That conditional statement should set your skeptic sense to Defcon one.
    - ifdefdebug 3y ago
      > let them age out Doesn't work. A long time ago I thought when all the old farts are gone, everything is going to be better. Had to have faith in my own generation right? You know what happened... Humanity just grew a new set of old farts.
      - PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
        This, and so much this. "The hope of the world is in our generation". No, it really isn't. Any given generation is, statistically, a lot like every other generation (certainly over spans of 4-6 generations).

by toss1 3y ago

myshpa 3y ago

> This is the food web One major contributor to the overshoot is our current agricultural practices, with animal agriculture being a primary offender. It's responsible for a significant amount of greenhouse gases, it's a leading driver of biodiversity loss and deforestation, and it contributes to soil degradation and water pollution. https://ourworldindata.org/land-use https://ourworldindata.org/land-use https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/10/World-Map-by-Land-Use-01.png https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/10/World-Map-by-Land... BIODIVERSITY LOSS https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01448-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01448-4 Humans are driving one million species to extinction - UN backed report finds that agriculture is one of the biggest threats to Earth’s ecosystems https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-global-food-system-primary-driver-biodiversity-loss https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-glob... Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/ Biodiversity conservation: The key is reducing meat consumption DEFORESTATION https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation Drivers of Deforestation - combined, beef and oilseeds for animal feed account for nearly 60% of deforestation https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/whats-driving-deforestation https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/whats-driving-deforestation Just four commodities — beef, soy, palm oil, and wood products—drive the majority of tropical deforestation. Beef - 2.71 million hectares / year Soy - 480,000 ha / year (77% for animal feed) Palm Oil - 270,000 ha / year Wood - 380,000 ha / year (but probably more) GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS CO2 - 16.5+% animal agriculture (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352100490_Emissions_from_Animal_Agriculture-165_Is_the_New_Minimum_Figure https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352100490_Emissions...) Methane - animal agriculture leading driver, https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector#methane-ch4-emissions-by-sector https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector#methane-ch4-e... N20 - animal agriculture leads again, https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector#nitrous-oxide-n2o-emissions-by-sector https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector#nitrous-oxide... SOLUTIONS We can significantly reduce our footprint by adopting plant-based diets, reforesting the pastures (more than 50% of which were originally forests), and allowing biodiversity to recover. https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets If the world adopted a plant-based diet we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00603-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00603-4 The carbon opportunity cost of animal-sourced food production on land - shifts in global food production to plant-based diets by 2050 could lead to sequestration of 332–547 GtCO2, equivalent to 99–163% of the CO2 emissions budget consistent with a 66% chance of limiting warming to 1.5 °C https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/917471 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/917471 Feeding 10 billion people by 2050 within planetary limits may be achievable

analognoise 3y ago
Humanity would rather go to war to thin our numbers than give up eating meat. The only viable method is lab grown meat that tastes exactly the same, same texture, and is cheaper. That's it. People have real stuff in their lives - they're not worried about planetary survival in 100 years, they're worried about next months rent, etc.
- toss1 3y ago
  Perhaps note that only 12% of Americans eat 50% of the beef. That group is men between 50-66 years old. The remaining half is spread among the other 88%. Convince that 12%, or let them age out, and half the problem goes away. [0] https://phys.org/news/2023-08-mere-americans-nation-beef-significant.html https://phys.org/news/2023-08-mere-americans-nation-beef-sig... Edit: Fixed link — Thx myshpa! (still looks truncated, but seems to work now)
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - Mountain_Skies 3y ago
    >on a given day That conditional statement should set your skeptic sense to Defcon one.
  - ifdefdebug 3y ago
    > let them age out Doesn't work. A long time ago I thought when all the old farts are gone, everything is going to be better. Had to have faith in my own generation right? You know what happened... Humanity just grew a new set of old farts.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
      This, and so much this. "The hope of the world is in our generation". No, it really isn't. Any given generation is, statistically, a lot like every other generation (certainly over spans of 4-6 generations).