So if we all stopped eating meat we could cut emissions but a couple of % but if we all stopped driving and turned our heating down/up we could actually make a real difference?
Edited with real numbers from https://www.c2es.org/content/international-emissions/
This article suggests livestock greenhouse gas emissions are equivalent to the entire transportation sector. Basically because methane and carbon dioxide have different effects on warming: https://www.ecowatch.com/which-is-worse-for-the-planet-beef-...
If you have a good source I would be delighted to read it.
It’s not just about emissions. It’s also about the massive amount of land required to produce meat vs. crops for human consumption.
Re: cutting out meat vs. driving, only one of those activities is necessary to survive for the very high percentage of the population who don’t have access to public transit.
You can probably give corn to people instead of cows in the US (yay more HFCS!) but you can't ask the sheep and goat herders to graze themselves.
Among the most effective things you can do yourself with minimal impact of your way of life is choosing to eat less meat.
Edit: the numbers I remembered was for Europe. Globally food production is 25%
https://www.c2es.org/content/international-emissions/
>Globally, the primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions are electricity and heat (31%), agriculture (11%), transportation (15%), forestry (6%) and manufacturing (12%). Energy production of all types accounts for 72 percent of all emissions.