6 ms·

Electricity generation is only a small part of carbon dioxide emissions. If you're worried about global warming, I suggest becoming a vegan.

• jgamman 12y ago
  that's disingenuous - electricity from fossil fuels, along with agriculture and transport are the 3 biggies. it makes more sense to say "yes, but don't forget transport and food". cheap solar and electric transport are pretty closely coupled as well especially if your car(s) can seamlessly act as your battery pack reserve.
  • nawitus 12y ago
    Private car transportation is only a small part of transporation.
• Jedd 12y ago
  How would becoming a vegan materially affect carbon dioxide emissions (or more saliently, the ratio of CO2 in the atmosphere).
  • amorphid 12y ago
    He's probably referring to methane produced by livestock. http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html
    • Jedd 12y ago
      Hmm, but there's lots of livestock that doesn't generate methane (and she/he did specify CO2 there).
  • dragonwriter 12y ago
    Making everyone else become a vegan (or, at least, internalizing the externalities associated with livestock so that market forces would make that a much more common choice), but doing so yourself won't. Classic tragedy of the commons.
    • Jedd 12y ago
      I do understand the logic of pro-vegan types on this front, but apart from believing it's fundamentally flawed, I was especially curious on the specificity regarding CO2 in this case. If the planet's population became vegan, we'd have some serious nutrition and soil management challenges to contend with. Cycling (or part-provisioning of) nutrients without using animals or without using methane and other fossil fuels (think Haber Bosch) is a mystery to me absent animals on the farm.
      • nawitus 12y ago
        Here's study on carbon footprint of different diets: http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/food-carbon-footprint-diet http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/food-carbon-footprint-diet "If the planet's population became vegan, we'd have some serious nutrition and soil management challenges to contend with." Nope. In addition, the whole world is not becoming vegan at once. If you think that's a problem, become a vegan now so that the whole world is not becoming vegan at once.
        • Jedd 12y ago
          I carefully avoided the 'at once' bit. Clearly that would be even more infeasible. That study / blog post is certainly partisan - but it is written by an energetic vegan (hmm, you'd think that'd be an oxymoron). I've still yet to see a workable solution to the Nitrogen and Phosphorous (as well as all the other micronutrient and mineral) cycles that does not intrinsically require the involvement of animal husbandry or the input of massive amounts of energy. Let me throw a reference to a properly researched study back at you - Simon Fairlie's 'Meat: A Benign Extravagance' http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Meat.html?id=iid8mTmXZZIC http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Meat.html?id=iid8mTmX...