I think what people always forget is that carbon models are always compartmentalized — but good production touches *everything*. And conventional farming uses *tons* of fossil fuels, at every step in the process.

Also, deforestation is a huge problem in terms of both new emissions but also our ability to sequester old ones.

I assumed that he was wrong because

1) he's usually wrong

and

2) even my limited knowledge of agriculture led me to believe that it has a significant impact on climate.

Thank you for the expert point of view.

I wonder how he thinks fossil fuels get into the atmosphere, without involving processes on the Earth's surface. All of the industries and transportation vehicles and farms are on the surface. If humans on the surface didn't use fossil fuels, we wouldn't be digging them up in the first place. Oil isn't just magically evaporating from deep underground, skipping the surface and messing up the atmosphere.

Sure we can ignore Elon, but this nonsense got millions of views

First Musk came for high speed rail and then I knew he was full of sh*t.

https://amp.fresnobee.com/opinion/editorials/article264451076.html

A significant, if not predominant, proportion of carbon footprint within the “#food system” comes from direct or indirect usage of fossil fuels, which include energy supply, fertilisers, supply chain and logistics, packaging / plastics, cooking and serving etc.

Therefore, from a purely scientific perspective, I am not sure your challenge to Musk’s statement stands as you might be speaking of similar things just in different terms.

This tells us that Mr Musk doesn't spend much time in the countryside.

Has he ever, on a hot sunny summer's day, walked across a ploughed field and into a natural forest? Or perhaps flown a glider over a similar landscape?

Well if he has, then he is either unobservant, or just plain dumb.

It would have been more entertaining had he blamed Hobbits or Norwegian trolls digging for gold, and, so it seems, just as accurate.

(Why do so many combines burn to a crisp in fields lately?)

He's put himself in a position where his main source of income has to do with electric cars (i.e. relying on concern about climate change) while he simultaneously desperately wants to be loved by a group of people who think that climate change is a woke conspiracy.

So now he's trying to find some way to reconcile those two unreconcilable positions.

@lisamelton So true. I suspect that @sarahtaber has a few words on the subject.

Unfortunately Musk confuses his ability to make money with knowledge about anything.

And let's face it, the only reason he is even acknowledging the role of fossil fuels is because he owns an electric car company, otherwise he'd be denying that too I'm sure.

It's just a marketing message "The best way to help the planet is to buy a Tesla", which is clearly a crock of shit.

A few folks have asked about solutions.

While agriculture’s role in #climate change is often ignored, climate solutions related to that sector are largely 1) already available 2) scalable & 3) significant.

Think precision (aka “smart”) agriculture, breeding crops for drought & heat tolerance, limiting soil erosion through farming practices that don’t disrupt soil structure, emerging alternative proteins, reducing food waste. And on and on… /2

Reminder that Musk works for Saudi oil interests.

Interests who farms alfalfa in the USA using American water because the Saudis can't grow alfalfa in Saudi Arabia because it's hitting 110 degrees F there.

https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/saudi-arabia

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/28/saudis-kingdom-holding-company-to-maintain-twitter-stake

https://luxurylaunches.com/celebrities/lifestyle-and-networth-of-the-saudi-royal-family.php

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saudi-company-fondomonte-arizona-ground-water-crop-alfalfa/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/in-drought-stricken-arizona-fresh-scrutiny-of-saudi-arabia-owned-farms-water-use

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/16/business/dealbook/saudi-paris-deals.html

Saudi Investors and MBS Head to Paris, Looking for Deals

A contingent from the kingdom, including its powerful crown prince, are in the French capital looking to spend big on investments.

^{Andrew Ross Sorkin (The New York Times)}

Musk has a few topics where he is (I assume) well-informed. But on almost everything else, he not only is ill-informed, but also patently lacks the judgement to assess what he doesn't know.

Put another way, the Musk zone of personal unknown unknowns is alarmingly large.

WTH why is he suddenly ranting about that? Of course "what happens on the Earth's surface (eg farming)" matters for climate,

1. Land use/cover change such as deforestation contributes ~12% GHG emissions,

2. When including land use/management (emissions directly related to "farming", e.g. methane from cows, nitrogen...), it climbs to ~23%, then upper with all food systems (transport etc).

3. Land use/management impacts global climate beyond GHG (albedo) and regional (H20 fluxes etc)