The latest billionaire space circle jerk.

[The Grand Nudger]

None of those links repeat the demonstrably false claim, retracted by it's author. The last link directly contradicts it.

It was never true, and it wasn't like the author was involved in some conspiracy, he just got shit wrong and knew exactly how he'd gotten it wrong after the fact. The only bad faith involved was in the propaganda mills latching onto the claim and continuing to perpetuate it even after it's retraction. You can read all about it, from that lead author..here.

https://news.trust.org/item/20180918083629-d2wf0

Using a global life cycle approach, FAO estimated all direct and indirect emissions from livestock (cattle, buffaloes, goat, sheep, pigs and poultry) at 7.1 gigatons of CO2 equivalent per year, or 14.5% of all anthropogenic emissions reported by the IPCC. In addition to rumen digestion and manure, life cycle emissions also include those from producing feed and forages, which the IPCC reports under crops and forestry, and those from processing and transporting meat, milk and eggs, which the IPCC reports under industry and transport. Hence, we cannot compare the transport sector’s 14% as calculated by the IPCC, to the 14.5% of livestock using the life cycle approach.

In coming up with the number..they not only miscalculated..but actually dumped the transport costs of the inputs and products into the livestock category...instead of.....transport....while borrowing and adding the costs under forestry and manufacturing. None of it is just out of the blue made up, but as far as accounting goes...it's akin to charging one department with the costs of the other department....and then charging those departments as well, in their respective analysis.

As far as the necessity of livestock - doesn't have anything to do with dietary requirements, and vegetarians also make use of livestock production. It has to do with land use and capacity and agricultural inputs. Of the necessity of livestock in commercial and sustainable agriculture - unless we just want to keep making food from oil. People have to eat meat because that's what they can produce where they're at, because we need the fertility, because we need the funds, because we need the food, because we want to get out of fossil fuel based production, because farmed protein is the only way to save wild stocks. You can see how harmful that miscalculation was and is to the reality of sustainable ag when you consider the models.

Iowas low number, for example, is likely to reflect a drop in feedlot operations year over year as the pastured market overtakes share. Last year, they saw an 18-35% reduction - continuing a trend.