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Comment by lbj | Hacker News Reader

I'm sure this is very important and so on and so forth. But we really need to find some way of communicating this stuff more "bite sized". Every few days over the summer scienticians predict that all life in the universe will be violently exterminated if we don't tax meat - and it's probably true, but it's just too loud, and too boring.

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Unfortunately, there is no “bite sized” way that is acceptable to communicate to the public to eat less meat because it’s terrible for the environment, or, even more bluntly, any way to tell people it’s just consume less without a large part of the population getting defensive and antagonistic.

I imagine if a core aspect of your lifestyle, work, culture, and traditions were being attacked for "destroying the planet", you may feel defensive and antagonistic as well.

My grandfather was a cattle rancher. His father was a cattle rancher, etc. When my extended family gets together we eat roast beef because that is our tradition. We eat beef hamburgers and hot dogs at 4th of July cookouts because that is our culture.

Most of the folks telling people like us to stop would never dream of telling another culture how to exist but since we are poor and white we don't really exist since we've been swept under the rug of white privilege.

Culture thrives on traditions, but if ours impacts others negatively, it's time for reflection and adaptation. Heritage grows when it embraces change.

I imagine you likely travel by air. I haven’t in more than a decade. So please stop. Your customs are hurting me.

I don't. I lowered my consumption habits significantly. And switched to veganism. It isn't that hard.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding...

Animal agriculture has 8+ times more emissions than air travel.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352100490_Emissions...

https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector

And that's just emissions ... we're not talking about biodiversity loss, eutrophication, deforestation, soil erosion, water usage, ...

The Lottery: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery

Tradition is a pretty terrible defense when the tradition in question has measurable, known harms.

Luckily, most rational people would probably agree that there is a middle ground between "change nothing" and "eliminate the tradition". For example, cutting beef consumption to once a week or once a month would considerably lower your environmental impact without eliminating a valued tradition.

> Most of the folks telling people like us to stop would never dream of telling another culture how to exist but since we are poor and white we don't really exist

Aww yeah that sweet nectar of victimhood. There are westerners telling Africans to stop female genital mutilation, should that also be allowed to continue, because, "culture"?

Unfortunately people are already being displaced and/or dying from climate related causes. That does not fit into any soft messaging and requires drastic intervention.

Alternatively: people care more about this stuff than ever before. So who’s to say that your preferred communication style is actually what will move the needle?

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