[landa]

Who cares about emissions, seriously? Imagine millions of humans were being slaughtered instead of animals. I'm glad you're thinking about this, but the big problem with eating meat is not emissions, it's the suffering of millions of sentient beings.

For all others: Please go ahead and downvote this comment. You're not a lion hunting prey for food. You're just a guy buying a dead animal at a store.

As for your original question, I became a vegetarian 5 years ago and it's only had a positive impact on my health.

[cercatrova]

Why would you slaughter humans? They have more value to society than meat, such as in economic output. Non-human animals have no such utility, that's why they're used for meat. (Well, I guess draft animals have been used in farming, so that's extra utility they have, but we have industrialization for that now.)

[SheinhardtWigCo]

I feel like I just stumbled into an Amazon executive team meeting.

[cercatrova]

I'm only being half serious, but it's true that not everyone shares the same ethical beliefs about animals as vegans do.

[scantis]

Vegans even differ in ethical beliefs. Some of them belief animals should be spared from the cruelty of life all together and wish them all to vanish.

Some have more love for animals and just hate the cruelty of mass farming, but become ethical hunters sometimes.

[thiht]

That’s how a large part of the world thinks though.

[meristohm]

I see your view and raise the complexity: one problem is the suffering, another is the emissions. There are a lot of humans on this planet, and our demand for meat is huge, leading to significant emissions from the animals all the way down the chain to our stomachs. If we all ate meat in the proportion chimpanzees do (about 3% of their diet), we'd have less impact (emissions, biodiversity, land use) and no one would need to forego meat entirely.

My personal choices are a drop in the ocean compared to what collective action can do. Convincing voters and elected officials to enact strict and equitable legislation feels like the most impactful thing we can do. (In addition to lobbying, I also like to read and comment on HN)