Meat production causes 25% of all GHGs in our atmosphere. Personal consumption, on this matter, is 100% the cause. No one is forcing anyone to eat meat on the staggering level North Americans do. If we as North Americans didn't demand so much cheap plastic shit to buy as part of our lifestyle, there would be less of it made, less of it shipped, fewer cargo ships, less GHG. Your beef isn't with people telling you that we consume too much, your beef is with the insurmountable prospect of convincing billions of people to cool it.

We're long past the point where focusing on just one or two sources of carbon is enough. Everything needs to be examined. We can choose a more sustainable diet AND curb mindless consumerism.

Also, I find the impossible/beyond burgers to be pretty good. I dunno what you're on about with "bug protein". At worst, they're made from yeast but plant material otherwise?

I don't think we can call the 18.5% of CO2 emissions that the meat industry creates "meager".

You're correct that the most effective way to tackle this is for governments to restrict the source, but you need to change people's habits too. Simply making meats more expensive isn't the entire problem.

This is an absolutely massive chunk of our emissions and it can not be left out of response to the crisis.

No, but you should feel guilty for the atrocity that you inflict in intelligent creatures. I don't understand why that does not even enter the equation for people. Even if you must insist that an animal's life is not worth the same as a human beings, that doesn't mean it is worthless. That does not mean you are morally entitled to make decisions that require vast cruelty. Your preference for the same three fucking animals over the tens of thousands of culinary plants available to you isn't more important than not raping animals, not mutilating animals, not traumatizing animals, not forcing the dependence of animals, not torturing and murdering intelligent creatures.

You realize this is included in a large chunk of the CO2 that companies produce, right? Do you think they simply spew CO2 into the air for funsies? They produce shit that people are buying. That production spits out CO2. A good chunk of the CO2 produced is from the meat industry. Most of our meat is produced in large scale farms. To get that meat, you need feed. That takes land and harvesting. Those combines don't run on hopes and dreams. Those run on fossil fuels. Then the feed has to get to where the meat is. That happens on trucks and barges which run on fossil fuels. Then once the meat is actually slaughtered, it is shipped out on trucks and barges which, again, run on fossil fuels.

But don't feel too guilty when eating a steak. But also don't bitch when steak becomes $40/lb when subsidies for the cattle industry are removed and the government also properly taxes CO2 emissions. In fact, given your comment, you should be actively advocating that to your representatives.

And lastly, Impossible meat is fucking pea protein. Where the fuck are you getting that it is made from insects? You sound like one of those conspiracy freaks who is constantly worried about being forced to eat bugs. Are bugs to icky for you? Are you not man enough to eat them because they are scary?

What do you think big companies produce to make CO2? What do you think the big barges are transporting? At the end of the day, companies make what consumers want. And the meat industry is a horrible contributor to climate change, not to talk about land and water usage. So say all you want to make you feel better, which is fine, but the facts are that we as a society need to eat less meat to be more sustainable. Eating meat twice a day is not necessary, and nor is it even common, both on a global and historical scale. It is a luxury that we have to think hard about whether we should reduce the use of.

Isn't meat one of the things being shipped across the Atlantic?

Ah the classic "i get my meat from local farms, free range and grass fed!" doesn't change the fact that they die for nothing more than your tastebuds, buddy. A horrible existence through and through because you specifically paid for it, on top of being responsible for 18.5% CO2 emissions. It's easy to point the finger at "big corporations" and simply hope that they spontaneously stop polluting without consumers demanding alternatives at the very least.

Wait until you see the giant super-yacht couriers that ship super-yachts for the supper rich.