I’ve read in an Article that meat production causes a lot of co² emission. Now I was wondering if we stopped eating meat completely, would that be sufficient to get under the threshhold of emissions what the planet can process? What is that threshold? Where are we now? How much does meat add to this?
Animal agriculture only produces 5.8% of greenhouse gasses[0], so even if everyone stopped eating meat tomorrow the effect would be less than 5.8% (not all animal agriculture is for meat).
[0] https://ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions-by-sector
That doesn’t Account for the deforestation caused by ever expanding beef pastures. It’s also unclear whether that slice includes the farming of soy, corn and alfafa grown exclusively to feed animals. And then there’s the “energy in agriculture and fishing” section that you probably missed. And let’s not forget how far meat has to travel, that’s in another slice in the energy section.
So probably there’s a couple percent more on top of that.
You forgot ocean acidification from farm runoff and the overfishing destroying the oceans ecosystem.
That’s more than industry (including concrete) so I still think it’s relevant. Land use, waste (water, dead zones), disease and antibiotics etc. are huge problems as well.
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I was answering OPs question, specifically:
Would that (alone) be sufficient? absolutely not. I never claimed it couldn’t contribute towards greenhouse gas reduction.
The question was: if we all stopped eating meat tomorrow, would it be enough to avoid a climate apocalypse?
The answer is: no.
Get off your high horse. This is a typical holier-than-thou attitude. Telling people that they can stop climate change by going vegan is the moronic take here. The power to stop this is not in the hands of individuals, and the myth that it is has been propagated since the last century by oil companies. Recycling isn’t enough, cycling everywhere isn’t enough, eliminating meat from your diet isn’t enough.
The only thing which will avoid climate apocalypse is eliminating fossil fuel use.
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I did not call OP a moron, I did not call anyone (specific) names. I expect the same courtesy.
I did not say anywhere that stopping to eat meat (which is only half the problem, milk is another big one, etc.) would stop climate change. In fact, I highlighted that stoppong all carbon emissions is important.
The individual decision to eat meat or not to is, as you correctly point out, more or less in vain. The important thing is, that a societal change needs to happen. Which is what my whole rant was about. Any (individuals) one action is not enough. The industrialization of it needs to stop.
For the record, I am not vegan, i eat meat, drink milk and eat eggs. At least call me a hypocritical asshole.
Bravo, you’re right in all that you say. I’m sorry if I came on to strong bredrin.
meat consumption doesn’t emit co2 though
Sure it does. You use muscles to move the piece of meat from the plate to your mouth, to chew it, to digest it. That all uses CO2.
Well, actually, it uses ATP, which has to be regenerated using cellular respiration, which emits CO2.
Are you happy with that explanation and sidetrack that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand?
you think human breathing is a significant source of co2 emissions, and should be mitigated? how would changing the food being chewed change the emissions of breathing?