United States: The Meat Industry is starting to look like the Oil industry on an almost daily basis. As currently shown in the Climatic Change journal, the animal agriculture industry, in the same way as the fossil fuel industry, has been setting up academic research institutions that say we don’t need to decrease consumption from these sectors; it is not necessary to keep a safe and livable environment, as reported by Heated.
Controversy Surrounding IPCC Reports
To be more precise, what is not said in the non-industry-funded research. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—which is made up of hundreds of climate scientists and endorsed by 195 countries—has emphasized that the technical solution-only (the one which the oil, gas, and other energy industries prefer) does not go fast enough to prevent a climate emergency. The IPCC ascertains that “the technical potential for emissions cuts in the agricultural sector is huge.” Surprisingly, this potential has not been utilized on a significant scale, and emissions from agriculture alone are still enough to trigger dangerous global warming, even in a post-fossil fuel era. Meat and dairy are by far the major contributors to the emissions from agriculture.
This fact justifies their urging for rich nations to lessen their consumption of meat and dairy products. Inanely, the IPCC also attempted such an assertion in its most recent report, but the animal agriculture industry successfully lobbied for the language to be retracted.
Certainly, Big Meat can rationalize exploiting the scientific misdiagnosis marketing method from a business standpoint. That’s what the fossil fuel industry has been doing for many years, and even while it has weathered scientific recommendations, it continues to grow and is still making profits.
Calls for Litigation as a Strategy
However, Jennifer Jacquet, a professor of environmental science and policy at the University of Miami and a co-author of the recent study, thinks there’s a more lucrative and creative option for the animal agriculture industry: litigations. There wouldn’t be a conversation about our diet here if it weren’t for the past delays from the fossil fuel industry, as reported by Heated.
“Meat and dairy should be using oil and gas,” Jacquet said in an interview. “Because part of the reason that we’re in this position is because we did nothing about oil and gas.”
Exploring Creative Solutions
Jacquet is the author of two books: Among others, there is “The Playbook,” which puts the spotlight on the fact that companies are lying about the climate and Is Shame Necessary?” where shame is used as a way to get companies to change their environmental policies. We were able to talk about the fossil fuel industry and animal agriculture industries during the interview. We discussed that animal agriculture and fossil fuels have a lot in common, and she introduced the idea of facing fossil fuels with animal agriculture in court.