Red meat has a huge carbon footprint because cattle requires a large amount of land and water.

https://sph.tulane.edu/climate-and-food-environmental-impact-beef-consumption

Demand for steaks and burgers is the primary driver of Deforestation:

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-beef-industry-fueling-amazon-rainforest-destruction-deforestation/

https://e360.yale.edu/features/marcel-gomes-interview

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2023-06-02/almost-a-billion-trees-felled-to-feed-appetite-for-brazilian-beef

If you don’t have a car and rarely eat red meat, you are doing GREAT 🙌🙌 🙌

Sure, you can drink tap water instead of plastic water. You can switch to Tea. You can travel by train. You can use Linux instead of Windows AI’s crap. Those are great ideas. But, don’t drive yourself crazy. If you are only an ordinary citizen, remember that perfect is the enemy of good.

  • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Operative word you. Individual action was a deliberate red herring constructed by the FF industry propaganda machines half a fucking century ago, because they knew who the actual significant contributors to the problem were.

    • BussyCat@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It’s a manner of perspective, Coca Cola is considered one of the largest polluters on the planet but that’s not because corporate Coca Cola is out there polluting for funsies it’s because they make a product that individuals purchase and then individuals improperly dispose of. Sure no one person can stop Coca Cola from polluting but isn’t the pollution caused by your individual purchase your own responsibility?

      • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        No. Coke could make biodegradable packaging and choose not to because number go up. Next question.

    • Wulri@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 day ago

      Operative word you. Individual action was a deliberate red herring constructed by the FF industry propaganda machines half a fucking century ago, because they knew who the actual significant contributors to the problem were.

      I do agree that real change takes political power. You need things like tax breaks for people who use public transit, congestion pricing, taxing airports more, banning ads for SUVs, requiring electronic devices to be repairable, etc… These actions would be far more efficient than any individual action. Sure.

      But political power isn’t enough. Look at what just happened in Canada.

      Justin Trudeau banned oil tankers off the coast of British Columbia and he tried to ban single use plastics. He faced outraged reactions.

      Some angry politicians were publically taunting him on social media and sued his government :

      https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/article/we-will-continue-to-push-back-alberta-to-continue-single-use-plastics-ban-fight-with-federal-government/

      A guy literally campaigned on defending plastics and slashing the (tiny) tax on carbon.

      https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-scrap-plastics-ban-1.7514037

      See what happened? The guy was the Prime Minister. He tried some small changes. He faced brutal political backlash. Why? His people weren’t ready.

      Change starts with individuals. Only when you reach a critical mass of individuals can you start trying to push for policy changes.