Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2021–2022
10:14 · 9.2M views · Nov 30, 2021
A Kurzgesagt animated explainer on the climate and environmental cost of meat. It covers how beef drives deforestation and emissions, and how this compares with plant-based foods.
HN commenters cite it as a clear, well-sourced summary of why meat, especially beef, has such a large environmental footprint.
7 comments from Hacker News
How do you arrive at the conclusion that the best thing to do in the US is switch your meats? Every form from animal protein is going to be less efficient than plant protein and result in more emissions [1]. There are some amazing Kurzgesagt videos exposing how and why that is true [2]. So since we know that eating animals is not required to be healthy at any stage of life [3] (assuming basic access to required nutrients and what not which is very easy in developed countries) how did you arrive to conclusion that eating chicken is better than eating lentils, beans, etc? I don’t think what you’re saying is based in fact. I’d love if you tried to prove me wrong though. 1. [LINK] 2. this video 3. [LINK]
Lots of disinformation here. Let's start from the top: 1. Veganism isn't a diet, it's a moral belief system. Diet is merely one manifestation of that belief system. 2. "Proteinless garbage"? What is this, the 90s? We've moved beyond the silly misconceptions that protein = meat. Do your research, please. Hitting daily protein goals is absolutely trivial on a vegan diet. Seriously, it's stupidly easy. 3. Animal agriculture is an astounding contributor to global emissions. Kurzgesagt just did a great video on the subject: this video We invite you into the 21st century, when you're ready. You'll have to leave the macho "I don't eat rabbit food" delusions behind, though.
Here's a related recent video from Kurzgesagt, discussing how space for beef cattle drives deforestation in Brazil. this video
There is a Kurzgesagt video on that exact point. Their analysis is that the emissions from shipping plants from further away to make your tofu is a drop in the bucket compared to the emissions you won’t be generating anymore by not consuming meat anymore. Meat which has to also have their food plants shipped around to them, on top of everything else. See this video
Compared to traditional methods, factory farming has less emissions so it's (relatively) better for environment. Of course avoiding meat altogether is even better. this video