110 characters, way over HN's 80 chars limit
> rest of the drivel
Your opinions are a result of targeted propaganda. Try to think for yourself.
https://newrepublic.com/article/171781/meat-culture-war-cric...
Why Right-Wingers Are So Afraid of Men Eating Vegetables
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/03/beef-ind...
Inside big beef’s climate messaging machine: confuse, defend and downplay
https://www.salon.com/2022/11/11/the-meat-industry-is-borrow...
The meat industry is borrowing tactics from Big Oil to obfuscate the truth about climate change
Some real facts:
https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/sustainability...
... study estimates it would take just over 5 Earths to support the human population if everyone’s consumption patterns were similar to the average American ...
Do you know how many cattle we have?
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2204892120
The total mammal biomass:
- livestock (≈630 Mt)
- humans (≈390 Mt)
- wild marine mammals (≈40 Mt)
- terrestrial wild mammals (≈20 Mt)
Do you know how much land animal agriculture occupies (cattle being the most land-demanding)?
https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/10/World-Map-by-Land...
https://ourworldindata.org/land-use
https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets
Do you know that animal species have experienced a 70% decline in just last 50 years, that we're driving nearly one million species to extinction, that we're in the sixth mass extinction which we'll manage in just 100 years probably, and that cattle is the main driver of both deforestation and 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://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/13/almost-7...
Animal populations experience average decline of almost 70% since 1970, report reveals
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01448-4
Humans are driving one million species to extinction
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-climate-crisis-biodiversity-ap...
The climate crisis and biodiversity crisis can't be approached separately
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/brv.12974
More losers than winners: investigating Anthropocene defaunation through the diversity of population trends .. of 70,000 monitored species, some 48% are experiencing population declines from anthropogenic pressures ... ... global biodiversity is entering a mass extinction, with ecosystem heterogeneity and functioning, biodiversity persistence, and human well-being under increasing threat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction
The biomass decrease is 80% for marine mammals, 50% for plants and 15% for fish. Currently, livestock make up 60% of the biomass of all mammals on earth, followed by humans (36%) and wild mammals (4%). As for birds, 70% are domesticated, such as poultry, whereas only 30% are wild.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2216573120
Farmland practices are driving bird population decline across Europe
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/
Biodiversity conservation: The key is reducing meat consumption
https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation
https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/weve-lost-35-pe...
https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/terrible-trade-burger-...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8622
The drivers and impacts of Amazon forest degradation
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/argentina-lost-one-f...
Argentina lost one-fifth of its Atlantic Forest in the last four decades
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/19/colombia...
Cattle, not coca, drive deforestation of the Amazon in Colombia – report
https://earth.org/major-companies-responsible-for-deforestat...
13 Major Companies Responsible for Deforestation
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/3-million-hectares-of-colo...
3 million hectares of Colombian Amazon deforested for illegal pasture: Study
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/whats-driving-deforestation
What's Driving Deforestation?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/02/more-tha...
More than 800m Amazon trees felled in six years to meet beef demand
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/27/destruct...
Destruction of world’s pristine rainforests soared in 2022 despite Cop26 pledge
https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-023-02599-1/index.ht...
Trouble in the Amazon - "we are killing this ecosystem"
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06391-z
Tropical forests are approaching critical temperature thresholds
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/917471
Feeding 10 billion people by 2050 within planetary limits may be achievable
A global shift towards healthy and more plant-based diets, halving food loss and waste, and improving farming practices and technologies are required to feed 10 billion people sustainably by 2050, a new study finds
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14449
How Compatible Are Western European Dietary Patterns to Climate Targets?
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03565-5
What humanity should eat to stay healthy and save the planet
> way over HN's 80 chars
Please assume that I know about HN's character limit.
> > rest of the drivel
Please do not quote me as saying thing which I did not say.
> Your opinions are a result of... {mile-tall wall of text and links}
I don't think you have any idea of what my actual opinions are. But you appear to be a pro at "more is better" performative activism in the current culture war. Hopefully that was your intention.
TLDR: Insisting on a particular diet, regardless of how destructive it is, is selfish, short-sighted, and unfair to the rest of the population, to future generations, and to the world we should be taking care of.
> 12% of Americans eat half the nation's beef
The article's full title:
> How a mere 12% of Americans eat half the nation's beef, creating significant health and environmental impacts
The first para:
> A new study has found that 12% of Americans are responsible for eating half of all beef consumed on a given day, a finding that may help consumer groups and government agencies craft educational messaging around the negative health and environmental impacts of beef consumption.
The quality and quantity of actual facts heads downhill fast from there. Even ignoring the article's dreary left-wing political agenda...if a mentally-competent grown-up actually wanted beneficial (for the climate & environment) changes in American eating habits (vs. yet more performative activism, and sermons to the choir), then he might take into consideration the huge number of Americans who identify as being on the opposing side of that sensitive culture war issue, and plan accordingly.
I have yet to see any sign, anywhere, of that last bit.