For reducing CO2 emissions, one person working competently on solar energy R&D has thousands to millions of times more impact than someone taking normal household steps as an individual. To the extent that CO2-related advocacy matters at all, most of the impact probably routes through talent and funding going to related research. The reason for this is that solar power (and electric vehicles) are currently at inflection points, where they are in the process of taking over, but the speed at which they do so is still in doubt.
I think the same logic now applies to veganism vs meat-substitute R&D. Considering the Impossible Burger in particular. Nutritionally, it seems to be on par with ground beef; flavor-wise it’s pretty comparable; price-wise it’s recently appeared in my local supermarket at about 1.5x the price. There are a half dozen other meat-substitute brands at similar points. Extrapolating a few years, it will soon be competitive on its own terms, even without the animal-welfare angle; extrapolating twenty years, I expect vegan meat-imitation products will be better than meat on every axis, and meat will be a specialty product for luddites and people with dietary restrictions. If this is true, then interventions which speed up the timeline of that change are enormously high leverage.
I think this might be a general pattern, whenever we find a technology and a social movement aimed at the same goal. Are there more instances?
For reducing CO2 emissions, one person working competently on solar energy R&D has thousands to millions of times more impact than someone taking normal household steps as an individual. To the extent that CO2-related advocacy matters at all, most of the impact probably routes through talent and funding going to related research. The reason for this is that solar power (and electric vehicles) are currently at inflection points, where they are in the process of taking over, but the speed at which they do so is still in doubt.
I think the same logic now applies to veganism vs meat-substitute R&D. Considering the Impossible Burger in particular. Nutritionally, it seems to be on par with ground beef; flavor-wise it’s pretty comparable; price-wise it’s recently appeared in my local supermarket at about 1.5x the price. There are a half dozen other meat-substitute brands at similar points. Extrapolating a few years, it will soon be competitive on its own terms, even without the animal-welfare angle; extrapolating twenty years, I expect vegan meat-imitation products will be better than meat on every axis, and meat will be a specialty product for luddites and people with dietary restrictions. If this is true, then interventions which speed up the timeline of that change are enormously high leverage.
I think this might be a general pattern, whenever we find a technology and a social movement aimed at the same goal. Are there more instances?