Pretty telling how change happens in the blink of an eye as soon as it’s financially convenient.
It becoming financially convenient was a result of decades of intentional policy. It’s now snowballing once it got there
It would have taken far longer to get here without government involvement if applications like space travel were the only reasons for earlier research and manufacturing
Oh I’m aware. I fully expect the same thing will happen to meat once we have cheaper meat substitutes. Yes, a ton of research money went into it but in the end, price is what matters for global adoption.
It is worth noting that you can already beat meat on price with things like beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc. Plant-based meats specifically are just more expensive because they’re building the economies of scale and putting some of their research costs into the price. Plant-based meats are also already cheaper than animal meats in some parts of the world
But yes, once that becomes much prevalent, sales will likely increase substantially
As a related note: this is also encouraging that a number of coffee chains are now dropping their non-dairy milk up charges after pressure from activists. Once they got Starbucks to do so, it’s spread to tons of chains. Even the worst plant milks are way better across all environmental metrics compared to dairy (yes even water weighted by scarcity), so it’s going to be good for the environment
In my case it’s just easier to work towards not eating meat as the plant substitutes are almost immediately rejected. The impossible burger I ate went through my system in a span that was so quick my gastroenterologist figured my body went “nope”
Same. I just wanna work towards requiring less of it and enjoying real plants that aren’t masquerading as something else.
Black bean burger patty? Let’s go!
Molded soy isolate thing engineered to seem like beef or shrimp or cheese or whatever? Gut rebellion.
It’s pea protein isolates for me. I went from “I need to poop” to “JESUSCHRIST GET OUTTA MY WAY NOW” in seconds from that fake meat.
Yeah, it’s hard to convince most Americans to replace meat with plant based protein. Once a 1:1 replacement exists, it’ll consume (ha) the meat industry rapidly like we’re seeing with energy.
most Americans
I’d argue “many people” is more appropriate
I was just talking about that same comparison yesterday! There are some big business interests in keeping older industries going. Whether it’s oil and gas, meat, or whatever. It takes a ton of political pressure over time to make change, but the truly biggest driver is cost. Once the alternative becomes cheaper, it will snowball.
That’s quite the understandment.
Non renewables have been subsidized for a century but now that renewables have become so cheap, the protection racket could no longer hold the technology back.
That’s… that’s how change… works?
More than half of the increase in solar generation in 2024 was in China
thanks for heavily investing in solar, based china.
Just in time for Trump to try and reignite coal! 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
A recent study performed by actuaries, not environmental scientists, predicted a possible 50% global drop in GDP by 2070-2090. 50%! Scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades, but you know it’s bad when actuaries are doing the same thing. When the alternative is certain collapse, the alternatives become priceless. No matter what happens at this point, global society cannot exist in its current form in the future.
Shame that AI and data centers are offsetting all that good.
For the moment in the current AI boom, but not expected to in the long run. Just make the progress less fast. Still not ideal, of course, but don’t get into the mindset that we can’t make any progress at all when we still can and are doing so
From the article
Ember’s report shows that clean generation growth is set to outpace faster-rising demand in the coming years, marking the start of a permanent decline in fossil fuel generation. The current expected growth in clean generation would be sufficient to meet a demand increase of 4.1% per year to 2030, which is above expectations for demand growth.
Hopefully AI means more investment into renewables, as well.
Not Merica, drill baby drill. Roll dem coal
Good! More oil for us to burn! /S
Bad time to be trying to sell a lot of power I guess
