Hacker News Reader

Comment by belorn | Hacker News Reader

Please provide the research that say that going vegan is one of the most effective ways to combat global warming.

According to a Swedish study publish a few years ago (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541), going vegan is mid-tier in combating global warming. Who you buy your electric from has a larger impact on the environment than going Vegan, as does if/what car you own and naturally what kind of trips and vacations you do. A single trip with an airplane can have a bigger impact on global warming than all the meat they eat through their whole life.

View on HN

Your linked research has 'Eat a plant-based diet' as a High Impact Action, not a Moderate Impact Action.

Technically the lowest of the high impact actions. Combine one Moderate Impact Action with a part of a second Moderate Impact Action and you get more than a plant-based diet, or just do one of the better High Impact Action.

Sure, if you assume the low end of the range provided for a plant-based diet's impact. You'd need to combine every Moderate Impact Action to reach the high end of the range.

You asked for evidence that a plant-based diet is one of the most effective ways. You found it.

But still within the "one of the highest impact actions" bracket which is what you're arguing against.

Also I already don't own a car at all and I haven't taken a plane in a little over a decade.

If you already don't own a car, don't travel by plane, and buy green energy, then a vegan diet is the next thing on the list.

The study gives everyone a 2.1T emission budget per year in order to achieve the 2 °C climate target. A single trip by plane can produce more than that, as can buying the wrong kind of energy. A EV car alone produce around 1T per year. A meat-based diet can coexist within that budget, same as the EV car. The average win for switching your utility purchase to a emission free source is 1.6T, while switching to a vegan diet is 0.8T. That illustrate the effectiveness between different kind of strategies to stay within that 2.1T emission budget.

That is, a high impact action, not mid-tier. You provided your own research.

This seems to say that an individual going vegan would save an entire transatlantic (!) flight for their footprint every single year, and recommends it as one of the four most effective things one can do?

I read the study wrong. A single transatlantic trip produce the same amount of emissions as eating meat for two full years. 1.6 tons for a flight vs 0.8 tons for a eating meat for a whole year.

Wynes & Nicholas downgraded electricity sourcing to "questionable merit." Table 1 gives a range of under 100 kg to 2,500 kg CO₂e saved per year, depending on the default CO2 intensity of the state/country you are living in.

A plant-based diet is one of their high-impact lifestyle choices.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com