Here are three concluding thoughts (strictly my own opinions) about the reception and impact of “Livestock and Climate Change,” by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang. It’s my opinion that the FAO is now dominated by the livestock industry, that “Livestock and Climate Change” represents only a minimum estimate of greenhouse gases due to livestock agriculture, and that we shouldn’t get distracted by the 51% figure.
Ok I’ve watched all of them now. It makes sense. How do we convince people?
It somewhat depends on who “we” are. My thought would be to concentrate on vegetarians and vegans and strengthen vegetarian / vegan communities. Next, convince environmentalists and their groups. Finally, take our case to the general public. We are much more effective when we are in well-coordinated groups. Climate Healers may be such a group, for example. One guy with a blog will help, but isn’t going to save the world.
It also depends on events. We can’t know the future, but it is at least possible that we would see a “Seneca collapse” of the livestock industry due to a variety of factors, some of which might be completely unconnected to global warming. I thought the pandemic might provoke such a collapse, and it did lead to a decline in meat production of about 3% last year, but nothing yet to suggest that the livestock industry is in a permanent and steep decline.
I said that livestock production has been continually increasing, but there’s some (sort of) good news here. According to Forbes magazine, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, meat production dropped 3% last year, and is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2025.