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BEEF DAYS

2024-06-11 · letter vlog · John · 5:54 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature · mode: Personal essay · tags: civic or action cta

John argues that limiting climate change needs changed social norms as well as technology, as smoking showed, and proposes that his family eat beef only on four commemorative beef days and two flex days a year, inviting Hank and viewers to join and to suggest the days.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — US beef consumption and its decline; beef's emissions, land use and deforestation

  • ★★ John says the average US resident eats around 220 servings of beef per year. — 00:00:00 · United States
  • ★★ John was surprised to learn Americans used to eat more beef: in the 1970s something like 275 servings per year. — 00:00:29 · United States
  • ★★ John says Americans still eat about twice as much beef as people in Germany or the United Kingdom. — 00:00:29 · United States, United Kingdom
  • ★ John says US beef consumption is declining, albeit slowly. — 00:00:29 · United States
  • ★★★ John says that unless humans dramatically reduce beef consumption it will be impossible to limit post-industrial global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. — 00:00:29 · climate change
  • ★★ John says beef produces around 10 times more greenhouse emissions per gram of protein than poultry. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John says beef produces about 20 times more greenhouse emissions per gram of protein than plant proteins like beans: wildly inefficient. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John says beef cows use around 60% of the world's agricultural land but produce 2% of its calories and only 5% of its protein. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John says beef cows are currently the world's leading cause of deforestation. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ John says climate talk tends to focus on technologies like electric cars, solar panels and batteries, which matter, but we don't talk enough about social norms. — 00:00:58 · climate change

00:01:27 — Climate needs social-norm change, not only technology: bigger cars and houses; how smoking stopped being cool

  • ★★ John says Americans agreed most cars should be SUVs or pickups, so the average new car weighs a thousand pounds more than in 1985, and houses are a thousand square feet bigger than in the 1980s. — 00:01:27 · United States
  • ★★★ John says bigger, more energy-intensive cars and houses are a social-norm problem, not a technological one: limiting climate change needs new technologies and changed social norms. — 00:01:56 · climate change
  • ★★ John says one drug, tobacco, at least partly causes about 13% of all human deaths in the world. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says he used quite a lot of tobacco when he was younger, though he understood the serious health risks, because smoking was cool. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says it is almost impossible to explain to young people today how cool smoking was in the 20th century: everybody cool smoked, like Billie Holiday, Albert Einstein and Dick Trickle. — 00:02:26
  • ★ John says NASCAR driver Dick Trickle, his real name, smoked cigarettes live on television during NASCAR races. (playful) — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John says smoking became less cool partly through government regulation making tobacco more expensive and good anti-smoking campaigns, and US smoking and smoking deaths have dropped. — 00:02:58 · United States
  • ★★★ John says norms feel permanent, as smoking's coolness did to him in high school, but they can change, and when they do it can be really powerful. — 00:02:58

00:03:27 — Beef days modeled on feast days: four honoring days, two flex days, an invitation to join; vegetarians celebrated

  • ★★ John says he needs to reduce the amount of beef he eats. — 00:03:27
  • ★★ John says feast days occur throughout the world and history, from Mesoamerica to the Islamic world to Europe: on agreed holidays communities feast, maybe on foods forbidden other days. — 00:03:27 · Europe
  • ★★★ John's family will try for the next year to recreate feast days as beef days: four agreed days honoring human achievements plus two flex days, and no beef the other 359 days. — 00:03:27 · Beef day
  • ★ John says that if his family sticks with beef days, they will reduce their beef consumption by around 90%. — 00:03:57 · Beef day
  • ★★ John invites Hank and anyone else interested to join his family's beef days. — 00:03:57 · Hank Green, Beef day
  • ★★ John describes advanced forms: also skipping dairy except on beef days, and vegetarianism, the most advanced; vegetarians should be celebrated, thanked and encouraged to feast on beef days. (playful) — 00:04:26 · Beef day

00:04:55 — Beef days are no climate solution but may help; ask for beef-day suggestions; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says beef days are not a solution to climate change: many technologies and norms must come together to speed the decrease in greenhouse emissions. — 00:04:55 · Beef day, climate change
  • ★★ John thinks beef days might help his family a bit. (hedged) — 00:04:55 · Beef day
  • ★★★ John asks viewers to propose in comments which dates and human achievements his family's beef days should honor; they will choose some from the suggestions. — 00:04:55 · Beef day
  • ★★★ In a P.S., John says that on Saturday at noon Eastern the brothers will host a livestream on the Vlogbrothers channel about Partners In Health's work, honoring young nerdfighter Amit, who died of cancer and left part of his estate to PIH, trying to raise money to match his gift. — 00:05:30 · Vlogbrothers, Partners In Health

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a comment, John says beef probably makes TB less likely, but only for malnourished people, since adequate protein and fat help the immune system keep TB in check. (hedged) — creator comment · tuberculosis
  • ★ Replying to a viewer who reduces beef by not being able to afford it, John comments that this was also the medieval trick. (playful) — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Beef · Beef day · climate change · Environmental impact of meat production · Feast day · social norm · tobacco smoking

Also: People: Albert Einstein · Amit · Billie Holiday · Dick Trickle

Organizations: NASCAR · Partners In Health

Concepts: Cattle · deforestation · Electric car · greenhouse gas · Islam · regulation · solar power · Vegetarianism

Places: Europe · Germany · Mesoamerica · United Kingdom · United States

Only in the description or credits: tuberculosis

Also centred on Beef: Some Reasons why People Suck

Also centred on Beef day: Some Reasons why People Suck

Also centred on Environmental impact of meat production: Eating Man Meat · I AM A BAD PERSON!

Also centred on social norm: Dec. 6th: Peer Pressure and the Green Green Manifesto · How to Tip Properly · Why Are Vegetarians Annoying? (An Exploration of a Cultural Rift) · The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Thoughts from Amsterdam · Some Reasons why People Suck

Also centred on tobacco smoking: Am I Cigarettes? · You’re Not Addicted to Content, You’re Starving for Information

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