Comments noammohr has made

Riddled with errors

This article is riddled with inaccuracies. For example:

• "According to this chart, livestock activity is behind power stations and about tied with transportation and industrial processes from a global perspective." Charts like those are a shell game, because they divide the effect of livestock into a number of categories, including "agricultural by-products", "land use and biomass burning", "waste disposal and treatment", "power stations", and "transportation". Livestock are a major contributor in all of these categories. The UN report teased out all of the effects and found that livestock are nearly 1/5 of the entire global warming problem.

• "It says livestock activity contributes an "estimated" 18 percent, which is bigger than transport, but not by much." In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, transportation accounts for 13% of global warming, which is a lot lower.

• Note that none of these numbers take into account the effect of aerosols, which mask the warming of CO2 sources but not of methane or nitrous oxide sources. That means methane and nitrous oxide sources are causing more warming than these numbers show -- and livestock are the #1 source of both.

• Saying power plants emit more than the livestock industry makes little sense. Part of power plant emissions are a result of fueling the livestock industry, which is very energy intensive. If you compare livestock to another industry -- like the chemical industry or the mining industy -- livestock produces more greenhouse gas.

• Claiming that since America is a small part of the world, so going veg (or anything else we do as individuals, for that matter) is not going to make a significant dent. I've been hearing these arguments against the US taking action on global warming for years... from the oil industry.

• You say that the livestock industry -- and the destruction of the Amazon -- employs a lot of poor people. Every environmentally harmful industry employs people, both poor and rich. This is not an excuse the continue global warming, which will have devastating effects on the poor, any more than it is a reason to keep clearcutting the rainforest.

• You noted that meat consumption was on track to double by 2050 and that conversions to veganism weren't keeping pace, but instead of logically concluding that we need to start urgently pushing reductions in meat consumption, you throw up your hands and say going vegan won't make a dent. Of course it will, as much as anything an individual can do. The underlining outlook, that you're only one person and nothing you do makes a difference in this global problem, is insidious.