I used to be a vegetarian in my early 20s. I thought I was doing good, saving animals from slaughter, living a healthy life, and helping the planet become a more harmonious and pain-free one. How wrong was I... In that process, I literally screwed up my mental health, gained weight, while slaughterhouses went on doing their business.
Yesterday, I sent a tweet to my sister who is still a vegetarian, and that tweet was saying that vegetarians have no clue how many bugs and all sorts of insects and small animals are killed by the agricultural industrial complex. She laughed... But had no argument against my tweet.
The man of modern society is always on the lookout to make himself stand out from the crowds and lie to himself that he's somehow "more noble" than the average Joe. Look at all these Tesla owners looking down at us ICE vehicle drivers as if we were some sort of sinners or direct enemies of the planet.
Very few realize that their Tesla is not as green as they believe it to be. And there are a couple of reasons why... First and foremost, Tesla owners are ignoring the fact that the core component of their vehicle is the battery.
For the production of a Model Y battery, you need: 12 tons of rock for Lithium, 5 tons of cobalt minerals, 3 tons of nickel ore, and 12 tons of copper ore. And... In order to get the 26.5 pounds of Lithium, 30 pounds of nickel, 48.5 pounds of manganese, 15 pounds of cobalt, 441 pounds of aluminum, steel, and/or plastic, and 112 pounds of graphite, you need to move 250 tons of soil to obtain that.
The ones involved in such a process are using heavy caterpillars to dig for all these metals and minerals, and believe me when I say: the Caterpillars are using a lot of diesel per hour, and the level of pollution such vehicles are associated with is huge.
The average life of such a battery that fuels the motors of a Model Y from Tesla is said to last about ten years. So when you extract all of the pollution the manufacturing process of the battery involves, from the extraction of the materials to the manufacturing and transportation process, you are left with three years of net-zero CO2 from the total life of about ten years of the battery.
How many Tesla owners, who consider themselves superior to us plebs still driving diesel and petrol engines for "saving the planet," have this data at hand when showing their superiority? The short answer is: less than 1%. I have nothing against Tesla cars; they might be great cars, but they don't save anything, and the ones driving them are not superior to us owners of regular cars in any way.
A few years ago, I was living in Norway, and Norwegians were so proud of themselves for not cutting down a single tree in Norway and used to brag about themselves as being an eco-friendly country. But most of the houses in Norway are made of wood, and these need repairs, and new ones are also being constructed, but no Norwegian is asking the question: where the hell does the wood they're currently using come from?
I'll tell you the answer to that too: it is imported through Swedish companies from Romania... Yep, I've seen proof of that with my very own eyes. Romanian-branded wood sold through BigMax (a large Swedish construction materials company) into Norway is how Norway is managing to cut zero trees down while consuming thousands of tons of wood on a yearly basis.
This is hypocrisy to me, the same as what Tesla owners are doing when driving their planet-saving vehicles while looking down at us plebs who are "killing it." Try better next time, you climate change-brainwashed dudes!
Thanks for your attention,
Adrian