Those links seem to address the question ‘does a vegetarian diet reduce carbon emissions?’ which is not quite the question I was asking. The relevant question is ‘what is the most cost effective way for me to reduce my carbon emissions?‘. A ‘yes’ answer to question 1 does not necessarily imply an ‘eat a vegetarian diet’ answer to question 2.
As an alternative example of the same kind of distinction, a ‘yes’ answer to the question ‘does a Prius have lower emissions than my current car?’ does not necessarily imply that the answer to the question ‘what is the most cost effective way for me to reduce my carbon emissions?’ is ‘buy a Prius’.
I agree, of course, that we must take costs into accounts. Comments by meh basically explain how to think about that.
You said, in what I consider an unjustified mocking tone, that my dietary choice was “not particularly” effective in reducing my carbon footprint. This is wrong.
For the record, I never claimed, implied, or believed, it was the most efficient thing for every single person concerned about global warming to do. I believe my writing is very clear. I feel you are being an uncharitable discussion partner. At this rate, I will not continue discussing the issue with you.
I feel you misinterpreted my tone. When I said ‘your’ dietary choice I wasn’t specifically addressing you—the thread was in response to meh’s survey answers and you didn’t mention your own diet in the comment I was responding to. I did realize in a later reply to meh that ‘your’ made the discussion sound unintentionally personal and so started using ‘one’s dietary choices’ in place of ‘your dietary choices’. If you re-read my comment with that substitution perhaps the tone comes across differently?
By echoing your use of the phrase “not particularly” I was trying to make a point that in the context of the thread your ‘impression’ that carbon offsets were not very effective carried no greater weight than my ‘impression’ that a vegetarian diet was not very effective. You’ve subsequently provided links to evidence that a vegetarian diet may be effective and so rebutted my point.
To be clear, the intent behind my questions is to elucidate to what extent people are choosing vegetarianism as a carefully thought out consequence of prior values (reduced environmental impact, minimizing harm to animals, etc.) and to what extent these are rationalizations for a choice made for other reasons.
I appreciate that you are making some adjustment to new evidence and therefore vote you up.
I acknowledge that the my moral calculations are far from the only thing driving my dietary decisions, the social motivations are interesting, and cut both ways. The fact that I have been exposed to, and learned how to cook, a delicious variety of vegetarian food certainly lessens the sacrifice I make. This is worthy of more discussion, though I may have to excuse myself from it at this point.
That said, I do believe I am, compared to the vast majority of people—even, I imagine, people on LW:
making better moral calculations regarding my dietary choices,
acting more in accordance with my moral calculations than other people.
Of course, most people probably believe those things about themselves.
Forced to give a number, I would say it is 1⁄3 of my moral motivation for eating mostly vegetarian.
Your impression is wrong. See: http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~gidon/papers/nutri/nutri3.pdf and http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16573-eating-less-meat-could-cut-climate-costs.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/opinion/27wed4.html?em&ex=1167368400&en=819c6a4e381eeb26&ei=5087%0A
Those links seem to address the question ‘does a vegetarian diet reduce carbon emissions?’ which is not quite the question I was asking. The relevant question is ‘what is the most cost effective way for me to reduce my carbon emissions?‘. A ‘yes’ answer to question 1 does not necessarily imply an ‘eat a vegetarian diet’ answer to question 2.
As an alternative example of the same kind of distinction, a ‘yes’ answer to the question ‘does a Prius have lower emissions than my current car?’ does not necessarily imply that the answer to the question ‘what is the most cost effective way for me to reduce my carbon emissions?’ is ‘buy a Prius’.
I agree, of course, that we must take costs into accounts. Comments by meh basically explain how to think about that.
You said, in what I consider an unjustified mocking tone, that my dietary choice was “not particularly” effective in reducing my carbon footprint. This is wrong.
For the record, I never claimed, implied, or believed, it was the most efficient thing for every single person concerned about global warming to do. I believe my writing is very clear. I feel you are being an uncharitable discussion partner. At this rate, I will not continue discussing the issue with you.
I feel you misinterpreted my tone. When I said ‘your’ dietary choice I wasn’t specifically addressing you—the thread was in response to meh’s survey answers and you didn’t mention your own diet in the comment I was responding to. I did realize in a later reply to meh that ‘your’ made the discussion sound unintentionally personal and so started using ‘one’s dietary choices’ in place of ‘your dietary choices’. If you re-read my comment with that substitution perhaps the tone comes across differently?
By echoing your use of the phrase “not particularly” I was trying to make a point that in the context of the thread your ‘impression’ that carbon offsets were not very effective carried no greater weight than my ‘impression’ that a vegetarian diet was not very effective. You’ve subsequently provided links to evidence that a vegetarian diet may be effective and so rebutted my point.
To be clear, the intent behind my questions is to elucidate to what extent people are choosing vegetarianism as a carefully thought out consequence of prior values (reduced environmental impact, minimizing harm to animals, etc.) and to what extent these are rationalizations for a choice made for other reasons.
I appreciate that you are making some adjustment to new evidence and therefore vote you up.
I acknowledge that the my moral calculations are far from the only thing driving my dietary decisions, the social motivations are interesting, and cut both ways. The fact that I have been exposed to, and learned how to cook, a delicious variety of vegetarian food certainly lessens the sacrifice I make. This is worthy of more discussion, though I may have to excuse myself from it at this point.
That said, I do believe I am, compared to the vast majority of people—even, I imagine, people on LW:
making better moral calculations regarding my dietary choices,
acting more in accordance with my moral calculations than other people.
Of course, most people probably believe those things about themselves.