Yes, obviously AI is emitting way too much. It shouldn’t even be producing 0.2% of global emissions, let alone 2%. My main grievance is that no one ever talks about improving industrial and agricultural processes even though they produce around 29% of emissions and 20% of emissions respectively.

  • saturn57@lemmy.worldOP
    151·
    3 days ago

    While switching to plant based food is an obvious course of action which would have drastic benefits, several other methods exist by which agricultural emissions. These include:

    • Livestock diet changes to reduce methane production
    • More accurate fertilizer application to reduce nitrous oxide production
    • Draining rice paddies to reduce production of methane by anaerobic microbes
    • No till farming to allow more carbon to be stored in the soil
    • Farm equipment electrification
    • Crops bred for higher yield or lower resource usage
    • elephantium@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      Farm equipment electrification

      Now I’m picturing tractors with the power arms that you see on Vancouver buses. Putting up wires over the fields in the right pattern would be a huge project, though. Oof.

      • bountygiver [any]@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        22 hours ago

        still very likely a worthwhile investment. It would also bring cost reductions with a bunch of automations such scaffolding could bring.

        • elephantium@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          4 hours ago

          Somehow I doubt it. I’d actually expect the capital costs of designing and install the wires to make it unfeasible. Maybe if you had grants for the construction aspect…hmm…

          A more likely path seems like electric tractors, maybe with swappable batteries. Really, though, I think I’d need to hear from actual farmers rather than trying to brainstorm in their behalf.