suppose you have a lake that is fed by a river, and exits into a series of underwater caves, before falling off into a natural reservoir. it's an ancient lake in a stable geological area, so the flow of water is in perfect harmony with itself.

now, let's suppose some asshole humans show up and reroute this other river into the lake, that is the same lake we just talked about, in order to reclaim the land under the other river to build a casino. they just figured that the river would flow into the lake and that would be that.

but, in fact, the second river was much larger, which increased the amount of water flowing into the lake by a great amount, leading to annual flooding once the reservoirs filled up. so, they take the money from the casino and hire a geoengineer to study it.

the geongineer takes a good look at the situation and decides that the lake can take about 90% of the flow rate without flooding. so he needs to find a way to reduce the amount of water flowing into the river by about 10%. he then looks at the two sources and measures their rates, concluding that the original source of the lake is responsible for about 15% of the flow rate and the river that was routed into it by the assholes is responsible for 85%.

he then takes his findings back to the casino owners, who quickly devise a strategy.

"well, why don't we reroute the initial river, then? that way, we can save our casino and prevent the flooding. and, it's a smaller river, so what can they do?"

so, they route the smaller river in a different direction one night, when the inhabitants in the region are sleeping. and, indeed, the flooding stops for a while.

meanwhile, however, the reservoir is slowly filling up. and, when somebody else further upstream decides to reroute the river for their own self-interest, the flooding comes back again.

this is a parable to help you understand what happens when you blame livestock farming for global warming. while it may be true that livestock is responsible for ~15% of emissions, these emissions can be placed into equilibrium. it's this new river that is causing the floods. and, in the long run, it's the new river that needs to be addressed to stop the flooding - even if rerouting the small stream might help for a while.