This. Since I gained access: I only buy local, hormone free, open pastured, humanly treated meat. It's expensive as hell so I can only afford to eat smaller portions. It costs what it should cost.
This shit ain't hard and people have been working on it for ages. Besides, dairy is a VERY small percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. No, milk doesn't leach hormones into you. No, extra steroids and shit for feed doesn't hurt anyone except MAYBE the actual farmer. Yes, better feed options are getting much more attention which lower N20 emissions. It's a shame I killed my reddit comments because I've had to have this conversation at least 40+ times over there lol.
The U.S. dairy industry is responsible for less than 2 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the country. U.S. dairy, per gallon, has the lowest carbon footprint of any country in the world.
Of all GHG emission processes, the most studied and best under-stood is that of enteric CH4 emission. As illustrated, this is normally the largest GHG source on dairy farms.A need still exists for better understanding of dietary effects, and particularly for the effects of feed addi-tives that reduce CH4 production. Because this is a large GHG source, feed additives and diet may provide the greatest opportunity for mitigating dairy farm emissions and reducing the carbon footprint of milk.Relatively little is known about enteric N 2O emissions;this appears to be a small and relatively unimportant source, but more data are needed over a broad range in diets to ensure that a better model of this source is not needed.
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines has a few surprises – one of which was that children ages 4 to 18 are not eating the recommended daily intake of dairy products.
Want alternatives and reasons why dairy is important? There's a reason why being Vegan is so much more difficult than giving eggs, dairy, and fish a pass lol.
We don't have a lot of your additives and our milk contains less sugar, for some reason. So I'm not bothered by that stuff.
We are one of the world's large dairy exporters (mostly to China).
The dairy industry here is mostly grass fed, it's a massive emitter of climate change gasses, leading us to be one of the high polluters per capita in the world.
It has also destroyed our river ecology due to fertiliser run off and excrement.
Culturally, domestically New Zealand is a massive dairy consumer (for reference an average household of 3 uses a 1kg (2.2 pound) block of cheese per week, 4 litres of milk and 500g (1 pound) of butter every week. Most Americans are surprised to hear we put butter on all our sandwiches).
I have no intention of becoming vegan.
But I have lobbied my representative for way more legislative curbs on the dairy industry and I have committed to eating less dairy myself.
I'm not au fait with your dairy industry but by 2050 we will look back on the wildfires and storms and landslides we're having now as "the good old days".
The average billionaire lifestyle of extravagance creates about as much pollution as a business of reasonable size. Their year exceeds a hundred average lifetime carbon footprints. Thousands of lifetimes if you include construction’s environmental impact.
Agreed. What people don't realize is that if they were to actually follow those recommendations, then oil companies wouldn't be responsible for as much pollution. We can say it's the corporations that are doing it, but it's all of us that are keeping these corporations in business and buying the products that pollute. If we all took personal responsibility, the corporations 'level of output would decline. This is ALL about personal responsibility and it is infuriating to watch people say "well it's the corporations" all the time.
This is your only option. Managing your carbon footprint sounds like a great idea in concept, but the entire concept was created and promoted by oil companies to distract us from where the real damage comes from. Worrying about your own impact is noble but if you’re doing it to save the world you’re on the wrong track.
Tacking onto this, I recall a Climate Town episode where he discussed which bank you decide to use matters. Oil companies’ biggest donors are banks that get to loan out your money.
Anytime you have a chance to vote, take it, and vote for whatever option will be most likely to reduce the overall emissions. In most cases, this will probably mean voting for programs/parties etc that oppose conservatism.
There is ideological diversity within the democratic party, especially at the local level. As part of a representative democracy, the electorate needs to be engaged with their representatives. You should start looking closely at your most local representatives.
I agree the the democrats are not nearly serious enough about stopping climate change, but the republican party is actively hindering efforts and definitely worse for the plant in the long run.
Neither party being serious does not mean one isn't way worse than the other
You still need to hold the Dems feet to the fire. Just handing them your vote as the least worst option just means you’ll never be offered any good options. Make them work for it.
You can get involved in protests to try to make them pay attention. You can write letters to your representatives and prospective candidates. You can ask good questions at town halls. You can campaign for good candidates.
Voting is the least important thing you can do. Ultimately you have no choice but to vote for the least worst option but if that’s the only thing you ever do, you’re helping to bury all of us.
Vote for better policies and laws that force companies to be better as well.
Even if we improve ourselves as much as possible: We still need the products of big corps which only improve because of (1) laws or (2) when losing money.
In the US, yes. In Germany, Switzerland and every other country with a good election system there are many different parties so you can just vote for the greenest (or the literal “Green party”).
I'm actually in New Zealand, where we have MMP proportional representation and a Green Party.
But I still let all the politicians in my electorate know that this is a voting issue for me.
We need to move that Overton Window. The more politicians know that this is what we want, the better.
If you're in a country with a good system, you probably have times where you need your political parties to work collaboratively to pass legislation and solve issues. It's good for them to know that we support them on this.
I put solar panels on my roof a few years ago. Not a complete solution but I do believe it makes a difference. Also slowly moving to all electric appliances. I now have an induction range instead of gas. And all energy star appliances.
I hope my next vehicle will be an EV. When my gas mower dies I'll buy electric.
I am starting the ball rolling on better insulating my 1950s house.
All incremental improvements, nothing too radical.
Human overpopulation is not only the biggest contributor to push us over climate-change tipping-points, it’s also the root cause of almost all other causes. It’s also the root cause of unsustainable habitat loss and pollution. It’s also the root cause of factory farming and industrial fishing, which causes more pain and suffering every year than all other atrocities ever committed in all of history combined.
The biggest effects will come from reducing your carbon footprint. Think about what activities generate the most CO2 and what you can cut. For example, meat production is a big CO2 producer. Reducing/eliminating red meet from your diet will reduce your carbon footprint.
Obviously, driving is another CO2 producer. If you can bike or walk as much as you can.
Home cooking/heating is another big source of carbon emissions. You can wear sweatshirts/blankets in the winter and keep your house cold (64-68 F?) and use fans in the summer instead of AC.
Reusing/recycle also comes up as a possible way to reduce CO2 emissions, but I’m not familiar with the net effect on your CO2 of recycling. Reusing makes sense though.
Is it about the size of the animal? Is there a large animal that produces enough meat to offset the environmental damage per serving? Chickens seem very gross and labor intensive for one family meal (unless you count eggs) where a cow seems happy to eat grass and produce a lot of meals. I realize most cows are disturbingly fattened and I’ve started trying to buy farm meat from local butchers. I think i read that Chipotle uses better (happier?) meat than most other restaurants. Also, i just started leaving about Temple Gramdin’s work for humane animal farming.
I had a parking issue and ended up using a scooter to commute the last mile to work everyday. I would show up for work happy and leave with a big stupid grin on my face. Knowing you can leave work and instantly do something fun put me in a great mood.
This isn’t really an option in the US. The fossil fuel and car industries colluded heavily to kill or limit public transit options through the country. Same with bike friendly infrastructure. We really do have to break up all the big corporations and tax, imprison, or eliminate the billionaires and multi multi millionaires to force them to change their behaviors.
Yep. My area technically has a county bus service, but it only visits each stop 3 or 4 times a day. Throw in the fact that even if you're lucky there's a "bike lane" that's about a meter wide and all the cars completely ignore. Just not at all an option
I've read somewhere that it's become quite dangerous to be a pedestrian/cyclist over the last few decades in the USA
Where I live we have a major intersection and the drivers looking to make a right turn are looking left to see if any cars are coming ( at 40 mph ) they're not looking right where a person is standing waiting for the walk sign to come on. When the walking sign comes on , the drivers make the right turn and only notice that a person is walking then; they swerve around you in shock and disbelief... IK this because it's happened to me numerous/countless times...
If only we could all rely on each other n our communities ( to share food and water ) , n if we could all go on a massive strike / protest all at once ... Maybe then we could get the government to listen to us... But that ain't happening... We're all too divided to act as one
And now with mass surveillance and AI; I figure we really don't stand a chance when 🪧 protesting...
I've no hope that things will get better... For Us or Them (other countries)... Global inequality is growing each year quickly
I agree with a lot of people that suggest voting and holding your representatives accountable and the mass pollutors responsible will be the most important part but I also think there’s no reason not to lead by example in this situation. Reduce your carbon usage when you can by buying fewer consumer goods, eating less meat, avoiding single use products, and more frequently using public transportation, walking and cycling to get around.
“Ethical consumption” is fine, but have a very low impact: Most of environmental damage is related to corporations, not by population.
Information is key: To solve any problem, we need to understand it the best we can. So how climate change works? How human action is driving it? Who is responsible? And what are our options? Look for science communicators that reflect the scientific consensus, not the opinion of a small group.
Be aware of/with any “solutions” that is proposed by or also benefits big corporations and the billionaires that owns it. There is a lot of green-washing shit around.
Vote for politicians that have a solid green agenda. Votes matter, but in capitalism, it is not enough. The capitalist system is built to maximize profit over everything else, that’s what will happen if there’s nothing stopping it to happen. So political education and engagement makes difference.
Here are some of the things we are doing that to us, don’t feel like sacrifices:
People say become vegan, but for me personally, that would feel too restricting, so my husband and I stopped eating mammals instead. We still eat chicken, turkey, fish (rarely) and seafood (also rarely).
Work remote if able
Grow a garden, even if all you can do is a windowsill herb garden. There are so many possibilities you can have. If you have a balcony, you can buy a greenstalk, where you can grow tomatoes, herbs, peppers, strawberries and all kinds of stuff. It doesn’t take very much space, and can be very efficient. If you have a little bit of land available, you can have some raised beds or just grow in ground (I am growing with a no dig method for example). You can also put in perenial plants such as blueberries, elder berries, black berries, raspberries, honeyberries and so much more that is really not going to require much of your attention beyong the initial effort of putting it into the ground and then harvesting once the plants start producing.
Start sourcing your food locally. The best way of doing this is finding a local CSA (community supported agriculture). We are CSA members of a farm that’s literally just a couple and their kids who grow 90% of their own food, and feed the local community too. The stuff you will get from CSA is not only locally grown, but it is the freshest, tastiest produce you will ever have in your life. Sometimes it even ends up saving you some coin, because you are not going through middlemen.
Learn cooking from scratch.
Don’t have kids.
But at the end of the day, you have to remember that you are just one person. Unless corpos decide to make changes, likely nothing we do will truly matter… I do all of these things, because it makes me feel better. Gardening is therapeutic, and you get amazing food out of it. Plus it is a very valuable skill to have, especially given everything happening in the world.
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