[gdubs]

This cultural meme of the past several years that people shouldn’t make what changes they can because no one else will change is pretty awful. There’s a good argument to be made that by building a critical mass among some percentage of the population, we can actually lead to a change.

And methane is the one solvable problem with meat production. Far worse is the land use change. We’ve destroyed natural forests to grow soy beans that go primarily to feeding animals. Crops grown with a fertilizer heavy, petrochemical driven process. This food is shipped all over the planet. Even if we switched entirely to regenerative pastures, we would come up short — unless we magically solve carbon capture engineering, natural forests remain our only serious method for re-sequestering carbon and slowly undoing the damage we’ve done, for future generations.

[jwr]

Again, a few of us changing our habits will not move the needle. It will make us feel better, but the situation will be much the same.

But introducing a high price on carbon emissions and sticking to it will force meaningful change.

[gdubs]

You know who’s more likely to vote for a carbon tax? People who are already committed to making a change. People who are already making changes in their own lives. To fix climate change, everyone will need to make changes to their lives. Doing it now might not be enough to move the needle, but it also doesn’t hurt, and it also primes people for meaningful action.