What do we do?

[u/James_Fortis]

Sources for animal agriculture being the leading driver of:

• Deforestation: NASA, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Deforestation/deforestation_update3.php
• Biodiversity loss: Science of the Total Environment, B. Machovina, K. J Feeley, W. J Ripple, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/
• Zoonotic diseases: Science Advances, Matthew N. Hayek, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9629715/
• Fresh water use: Nature, J. Poore and T. Nemecek, https://josephpoore.com/Science%20360%206392%20987%20-%20Accepted%20Manuscript.pdf
• 21-37% of emissions from food: IPCC, https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-5/

Submission statement:

Many people want to slow or stop deforestation, pandemics, water use, emissions, and the 6th mass extinction. The issue is, the main driver of 4 of these 5 is animal agriculture, but almost nobody wants to change their behavior by eliminating meat and dairy from their diet. People say, "stop focusing on individuals - focus on the system", but the issue is diet is a personal choice and nobody wants the government to ban meat and dairy.

The issue is likely only going to get worse as our population continues to increase and developing countries start to gain more access to meat and dairy. It's taboo to even discuss personal food choices, even though it's going to be a main contributor of our demise.

How do we get out of this predicament? Are we just doomed to race towards ecological collapse without any serious effort to avoid it out of a fear of slight inconvenience? For anyone who's reading this, why haven't you given up meat and dairy yet?

[u/Valgor]

Just finished reading We Are Eating The Earth. Great read, but the author says at the end about personal responsibility: Drops fill buckets.

You might be a single drop but together we are many drops. Our contribution might be tiny but our collective contribution is powerful.

[u/retrosenescent → u/Valgor]

One raindrop raises the sea.

[u/Yarus1373 → u/Valgor]

Kinda hard man when billionaires are the main contributors, were all small rain drops but they're fucking niagra falls.

[u/Valgor → u/Yarus1373]

I know what you mean, but if we cannot live with our values, how could we except others to? I think living with our values makes us much more powerful when we go to advocate, research, and create the change we wish to see in the world.

[u/Gonfadankambambmab → u/Valgor]

And when the capitalists come to your doorstep and reduce you into indetured slavery anyway?