For most countries around the world, sourcing energy entirely from wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower by 2050 would reduce their energy needs and costs, improve air quality, and help slow climate change, according to a study in Environmental Science & Technology.
  • silence7@slrpnk.netM
    1·
    4 days ago

    This is unfortunately not true. There are several mechanisms through which meat production increases greenhouse gas emissions:

    1. Bacteria in the stomachs of cattle and other ruminants produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. So the more cattle being raised for meat or milk, the more methane in the atmosphere. Reduce the size of the herd, and the concentration drops.
    2. Animals consume energy from the food they eat; not every calorie they eat ends up as meat or milk. In the case of cattle, only about 1/10 ends up in that form. So a lot of land needs to be converted from natural ecosystems to produce food for animals. This conversion causes carbon sequestered in trees and soils to be released into the atmosphere.
    3. That increased area of agricultural land needs fertilizer, and the process for making nitrogen fertilizer involves burning huge amounts of natural gas. This both releases CO₂ into the atmosphere, as well as CH₄ via pipeline leaks.

    Both of you need to cool it here.

    • NSRXN@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1·
      4 days ago

      those are all problems of production. production doesn’t decrease because anybody goes vegan. veganism has been around since the '40s, meat production has only increased since then with a few exceptions that have nothing to do with people being vegan.

      • silence7@slrpnk.netM
        1·
        4 days ago

        Almost nobody has gone vegan during a time period where the population affluent enough to afford regular meat on a regular basis has increased many times over.

        If a meaningful chunk of the affluent population went vegan, we’d absolutely see a lot less meat produced. At the individual level, it’s going to make a very modest difference, but that’s how mass changes start.

        • NSRXN@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          1·
          4 days ago

          At the individual level, it’s going to make a very modest difference, but that’s how mass changes start.

          there’s no reason to believe it makes any difference at all.