There is insufficient public understanding

Despite

🗨️

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated that the livestock industry emitted more than 8 Gigatonnes of CO2-e in 2017 , at par with the CO2 released by all cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships in the world in the same year.

When asked which of the below do you think are the biggest contributors to global warming? Please rank up to 5, where 1 is the biggest contributor.

🗨️

Citizens in Brazil, France, Germany, the UK and the US do not regard industrial meat as a key contributor to climate change, according to a new global poll by Northstar Research commissioned by sustainable food NGO Madre Brava [1]. In the five markets surveyed, industrial meat was viewed to be a smaller source of emissions than cars or planes, even though animal agriculture is one of the single largest sources of greenhouse gases, accounting for a minimum 14.5% of all human-made emissions (while more recent estimates set it at 16.5%-28%). Likewise, livestock is a major emitter of methane, a super potent global warming gas. Emissions from manure and cattle burps account for 32% of anthropogenic methane, almost at par with methane emissions from all fossil fuels.

🔗Source: People don’t see industrial meat as a key cause of global warming – poll

https://madrebrava.org/insight/people-don-t-see-industrial-meat-as-a-key-cause-of-global-warming-poll

Which is depressing but not surprising

The Synthesis report of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) despite correctly stating

🗨️

that limiting warming to 1.5C and 2C involves rapid, deep and in most cases immediate greenhouse gas emission reductions.

The conditions that enable this goal are apparently

🗨️

Inclusive Government Diverse Knowledge Finance and Knowledge Integration across sectors and time scales Ecosystem stewardship Synergies between climate and development actions Behavioural change supported by policy, infrastructure and social-cultural factors

Notwithstanding the impenetrability of the language there is nothing concrete about how ending animal agriculture has any role to play

🗨️

‘Sustainable healthy diets’ promote all dimensions of individuals’ health and well-being; have low environmental pressure and impact; are accessible, affordable, safe and equitable; and are culturally acceptable, as described in FAO and WHO. The related concept of ‘balanced diets’ refers to diets that feature plant-based foods, such as those based on coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and animal-sourced food produced in resilient, sustainable and low-GHG emission systems,

This comes from a footnote and is the only place animals are mentioned and its apparent from this diagram that accompanies the above ‘conditions’ that hard prescriptions aren’t something that the IPCC is prepared to offer.

Despite the apocalyptic tone of the report - it is still apparently necessary and more important to peddle myths about private sectors rescue and that ‘sustainable animal agriculture’ is a feasible alternatives to the benefits of ending Factory Farming.

🔗Source: AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/

Public awareness matches IPCC messaging

There is insufficient public understanding

Which is depressing but not surprising