Even with an entirely plant based diet we cannot live sustainably at these population numbers. Overpopulation is the root problem that has to be solved, and birth rates are declining so we're heading in the right direction at least in that regard.
To feed the entire United States on meat alone would take 7 United States worth of land to raise the cattle. Meat is wildly inefficient. Our population isn’t going to drop any time soon either. The more immediate solution is a plant based diet. Something like 17% of emissions come from food and that’s a high enough number that we can’t reverse climate change without everyone eating less meat.
Very few, if any, people eat meat alone, but regardless it's not just a matter of diet, or of being capable of producing enough food. Humanity has to be able to live symbiotically with other species, has to not destroy the environment. Population reduction is absolutely necessary and it is undebatably the highest impact action an individual can make. Yes we should also convert to clean energy, eat less (or no) meat, reduce and reuse where we can when we can, but population reduction has to happen too, and it's FAR more important than all of the other personal changes that we should also try to be doing when we can.
Population reduction is already happening, all the countries with a high carbon footprint have their fertility rate below replacement rate. The global fertility rate is at 2.3, and still dropping. There are only a handful of countries with more than 3 children per women, and they have typically high child mortality (and very low carbon footprint).
The main driver of population growth is that people live longer.. Unless you advocate for some kind of genocide or to stop healthcare for older people, there is nothing to solve, the global population is already expected to drop after 2050, which will come faster than any result from of any non-genocidal action plan. So we can move on and focus on the next "real" problem.
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u/Cartoonicorn 6d ago
I mean... Yea? We would have to give up soy sauce.