Red meat has a huge carbon footprint because cattle requires a large amount of land and water.

https://sph.tulane.edu/climate-and-food-environmental-impact-beef-consumption

Demand for steaks and burgers is the primary driver of Deforestation:

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-beef-industry-fueling-amazon-rainforest-destruction-deforestation/

https://e360.yale.edu/features/marcel-gomes-interview

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2023-06-02/almost-a-billion-trees-felled-to-feed-appetite-for-brazilian-beef

If you don’t have a car and rarely eat red meat, you are doing GREAT 🙌🙌 🙌

Sure, you can drink tap water instead of plastic water. You can switch to Tea. You can travel by train. You can use Linux instead of Windows AI’s crap. Those are great ideas. But, don’t drive yourself crazy. If you are only an ordinary citizen, remember that perfect is the enemy of good.

  • LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    People will look at an image like this, read that 80% of deforestation in the Amazon happens for cattle, and go “I’m powerless, Exxon is bad” and continue to not only eat meat 5x a day but also actively try to convince other people that reducing their meat consumption is silly and they might as well keep eating it as much as they want because grocery stores will stock it anyway and Elon Musk rides a jet.

  • 🍉 Albert 🍉@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    question, how come beef is so cheap it’s it takes so much resources?

    if it’s just subsidies, then we should get rid of them

  • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    perfect is the enemy of good.

    I wish vegans and vegetarians would be a bit more willing to promote this viewpoint. It’s insane how many otherwise normal people will refuse a single meat-free meal for no reason other than identity politics.

  • DogWater@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Not disagreeing that meat is bad for the environment, but I think not having kids is probably way above that.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Yeah. Just had this convo with my partner two days ago.

        Reasons why I don’t want kids.

        Number one, they can’t consent to being born, If given the choice, I would not consent to being born right now, why should I force that on someone else.

        Number two, we can’t afford kids right now, even with both of us working full time jobs. (Not bragging, but both my partner and I make over the median household income for our area. I legit have no idea how other people do it, because we are paycheck to paycheck right now.)

        Number three, even though abortion is legally protected in the constitution of my state, our legislators at the state and the federal levels are seeking to undo those protections against the will of the people. There is no guarantee that if we had a complicated pregnancy, that they would survive or even be able to find healthcare.

        Number four, we are knowingly perpetuating an ongoing climate disaster. I can’t in good faith bring someone into this world knowing that they will be displaced or die because the part of the planent they live on may become inhospitable due to our inaction.

        Number five, we’re seeing the rise of far right antagonist fascist movement worldwide. At this point a global war for basic human rights is inevitable, if not already started.

        Number six, there are always hundreds of thousands of children stuck in the foster/adoption system who are destined to struggle for the rest of their lives because of a lack of family support. I would adopt long before I would consider bringing another person into this world.

        Thanks for attending my doom rant.

  • Bloomcole@lemmy.worldBanned from community
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    1 month ago

    YSK you should stop guilting us peasants.
    Everyone knows who’s to blame.
    Tired of this shit.

  • bigbabybilly@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    No. The SINGLE best think you can do for the planet is not reproduce. Then something about not eating red meat and international travel. But the planet HATES your 5 kid family.

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Veganism is good, necessary even, but more than voting we need to actually overthrow capitalism and replace it with socialism. Profit will destroy the planet unless we take control of the reigns from capital.

    • AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net
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      1 month ago

      On a planet where 95-99% of people consume animal products, and still heavily participate in the systems of animal captivity, brutality, and exploitation; can you explain how overthrowing capitalism and replacing it with socialism is going to make a vegan world happen?

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Socialism will not automatically create vegan world, it hasn’t done so anywhere socialism exists. However, it does swap from profits as the end-all, be-all of how society is organized, to one where humanity can better plan production and meet people’s needs. If capital is in the driver’s seat, then the meat industry will continue to perpetuate said brutality and environmental destruction unimpeded. If humanity is in the driver’s seat, then we can actually work against what would be assured in a profit driven model.

        The swap to veganism will never be instant, but it will be largely impossible without human supremacy over capital.

        • AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net
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          1 month ago

          That’s a pretty fair assessment, though it’s hard to imagine that being much less of an uphill battle. People still place a significant amount of their identity in what they eat. In the US at least, a culture of perceived personal freedoms still heavily prevails. Even though vegans are already relegated to trying to appeal to people to change their individual choices voluntarily, people still frequently accuse us of militancy and being tyrannical - even though we’ve virtually never even had real representation in government, aside from very small hard-won anti animal abuse laws that have resulted from extremely risky investigative operations.

          Any governmental system that makes any attempts to shift us all in a more vegan direction would quite easily provoke significant backlash and possibly even the threat of overthrow.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            Sure, it wouldn’t be easy, but it’s nearly impossible under capitalism. What would realistically happen is the state would heavily subsidize plant based food and develop economies of scale, and increase requirements on animal products for more “humane” treatment, until gradually animal products are phased out culturally. A top-down command for animal liberation would be commandist if the masses don’t want it, so raising political consiousness would be a key part of that struggle.