Are fossil fuels vegan?
Are fossil fuels vegan?
17 comments
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No, they release harmful gases into the air which harm animals.
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So do I.
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No processed foods, true vegans eat crude oil and raw uranium for their daily calorie intake
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The definition from the vegan society is:
Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.
Is climate change cruel to animals? It's not intentional harm, but it causes suffering. People will weigh that differently based on the ethical framework (deontology - utilitarianism spectrum).
Going on vacation by plane arguably isn't vegan from a utilitarian perspective. Deontologists might still see it as vegan.
If someone needs to drive a car and can't afford an EV, it's not practical to avoid fossil fuels in this case. So that would be vegan either way.
I think the "avoiding as far as possible and practicable" principle also makes a lot of sense for the use of fossil fuels by environmentalists.
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Gelato isn't vegan?!
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... Chicken isn't vegan?
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17 comments
Yes. No animal was intentionally harmed or killed to be turned into oil. This puts it in the same category as foraged deer antlers or cicada wings, or I guess compost where you found a squirrel carcass and added it to the pile.
You could argue that animals are harmed by the process of extracting and burning fossil fuels, and thus it's not vegan. But this isn't very convincing to me, since that's a secondary effect and not necessary to the process of consuming fossil fuels. (Or at least not necessary in the same way that killing chickens is necessary in order to make chicken sandwiches, for example.) And if you start worrying about a big web of consequences of your actions, then it seems like you're mostly just adding stress to your life without actually making the world a better place.
Bees aren't intentionally harmed or killed to make honey but it isn't vegan.
This isn't entirely true. Sometimes queen bees have their wings cur off to insure they stay in the beehive, and thus make the beehive produce honey. Also, the queens can then often be discarded/killed at the end of the season. So no harm being done in the production of honey is not always the case.
I feel like there should be an option to certify honey as being vegan if no harm is done to the bees in the process though.
I mean I think bees are harmed in the production of honey, it's just that most people don't care about bee welfare. Commercially they're bred by crushing the male to extract semen, and any operation above hobby scale will clip the wings of the queen so that the hive can't escape.
Then you necessarily need to replace their ideal food source with something that is nutritionally much worse for them (basically sugar water), and then hope that they survive on that long enough to make more honey for us to take.