Yes, industrial processes are optimized all the time. Sometimes investment is needed: there are nitrogen production factories which were built later and are more efficient than older ones.
we can reduce dairy consumption right now
Yes and no, you can stop consuming dairy on your own; worldwide reduction is quite a different thing to achieve. Not impossible, but definitely not going to happen right now. Milk production has indeed been increasing steadily throughout the years regardless of the higher share of people who became vegan around the world.
I like to eat cheese.
Thus I ask, if I make the effort to not eat cheese and to have other people not eat dairy and this leads to no milk production in the next 15-20 years. Does that actually lead to any measurable difference?
how long will it take to be at plant milk’s level of emissions?
It possibly never have such low emissions as plant based milk production. Regardless, plant production needs nitrogen.
i think the milk production increase depends on the countr
Milk is mostly important in poor countries, since it is a nutritious cheap food.
i know here a huge chunk of people have switched to oat barista milk for coffee
No data here, but I have the impression that coffee production has a greater impact than milk production.
if cheese is the only dairy product you eat
I barely eat any cheese, but I fail to understand how that matters.
yes, reduced dairy consumption is good unless we get the emissions of dairy production in control.
No doubts it’s good. I’m asking how good it is and whether it even matters.
even small changes in a variety of things really does add up
Policy changes matter way more than what individuals can do on their own, even if it was the case that people were to get organized and make such changes on mass.
if you combine this with taking the train sometimes where it makes sense
Agreed, but rather than criticizing people for not taking trains it would be better to find a way to make it easier for people to take a train. If you have free public transport which takes you from your house to wherever you need to go you’re going to take the train. If the railway is one hour away and the train ride is two hours can you really tell someone not to use their car? I don’t have a car because I don’t need one, but plenty people do.
The changes you advise on doing are minor nuisances that rich people in rich countries can afford to make. The effect of such changes is minor. I see the good intentions, but this is hypocritical since those same people are the ones who most pollute.
i’m mostly talking about people in the west because we pollute way more than poor countries.
i don’t see how it’s hypocritical though, we are the ones that really should be making changes in our lives and, of course policy.
People in the west pollute a lot more, but not because they consume a lot more milk. The reason why they pollute much more is widespread consumerism. Reducing the amount of milk consumption is pretty much ininfluential. Of course, don’t buy milk just to throw it away.
If you want to do that, fine by me: I appreciate the effort. But don’t fool yourself not drinking milk is making any kind of difference; even if that was a practice which became widespread across your whole nation.
i’m very poor
I don’t know if you’re American. I had people in America telling me they were very poor because they had to rent a full house and couldn’t buy one and were forced to cook at home a couple times a week because they did not earn enough to go to restaurant every day. I come from Europe and I’m in no way poor, but while they described me their lifestyle I was thinking they lived the same way as a doctor would in my country.
You could argue vegetable milk is also contributing to killing the planet. Doing that is clearly pointless.
Is the pollution produced by the production of milk significant, in such a way that reducing it would lead to measurable changes?
deleted by creator
Work on improving the efficiency of the Haber-Bosch process used in the production of nitrogen just 1%.
That will probably have a stronger impact than removing all milk production and private jets from the planet.
There are places in which it is more efficient to optimize since that optimization will lead to a greater benefit.
Is reducing the production of milk potentially one of these important optimizations?
deleted by creator
Yes, industrial processes are optimized all the time. Sometimes investment is needed: there are nitrogen production factories which were built later and are more efficient than older ones.
Yes and no, you can stop consuming dairy on your own; worldwide reduction is quite a different thing to achieve. Not impossible, but definitely not going to happen right now. Milk production has indeed been increasing steadily throughout the years regardless of the higher share of people who became vegan around the world.
I like to eat cheese.
Thus I ask, if I make the effort to not eat cheese and to have other people not eat dairy and this leads to no milk production in the next 15-20 years. Does that actually lead to any measurable difference?
Or maybe I’d better focus on doing other things?
deleted by creator
It possibly never have such low emissions as plant based milk production. Regardless, plant production needs nitrogen.
Milk is mostly important in poor countries, since it is a nutritious cheap food.
No data here, but I have the impression that coffee production has a greater impact than milk production.
I barely eat any cheese, but I fail to understand how that matters.
No doubts it’s good. I’m asking how good it is and whether it even matters.
Policy changes matter way more than what individuals can do on their own, even if it was the case that people were to get organized and make such changes on mass.
Agreed, but rather than criticizing people for not taking trains it would be better to find a way to make it easier for people to take a train. If you have free public transport which takes you from your house to wherever you need to go you’re going to take the train. If the railway is one hour away and the train ride is two hours can you really tell someone not to use their car? I don’t have a car because I don’t need one, but plenty people do.
The changes you advise on doing are minor nuisances that rich people in rich countries can afford to make. The effect of such changes is minor. I see the good intentions, but this is hypocritical since those same people are the ones who most pollute.
deleted by creator
People in the west pollute a lot more, but not because they consume a lot more milk. The reason why they pollute much more is widespread consumerism. Reducing the amount of milk consumption is pretty much ininfluential. Of course, don’t buy milk just to throw it away.
If you want to do that, fine by me: I appreciate the effort. But don’t fool yourself not drinking milk is making any kind of difference; even if that was a practice which became widespread across your whole nation.
I don’t know if you’re American. I had people in America telling me they were very poor because they had to rent a full house and couldn’t buy one and were forced to cook at home a couple times a week because they did not earn enough to go to restaurant every day. I come from Europe and I’m in no way poor, but while they described me their lifestyle I was thinking they lived the same way as a doctor would in my country.