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There are about 1.5 billion of total cars + buses + trucks in this world. Even if we assume only 1 billion of them are consumer cars (which is already a VERY conservative estimate), all of them combined make 12% impact, so that schmuck driving a Toyota Corella would contribute less than 0.000000012% of the global climate change.

Significant my ass.

Climate change is a phenomenon happening on planetary scale, so the impact of individuals are always going to be astronomically small. This is a crisis that requires nation-state or mega-corp scale of efforts, and blaming individuals for the failure of nation-states and mega-corps on what they should be held responsible for, is extremely disingenuous.

We can consume the wealthy and abdicate them of the responsibility of carrying on and also demand change. Especially if we consume them while they're still alive, as a mob, and do it with dull forks.

The survivors will be far more willing to listen.

We can't both maintain a consumer mindset and abdicate individual responsibility while also demanding sweeping societal changes.

And you think it's the "demanding sweeping societal changes" that has to go?

Maybe we need to start with the individualism and "consumer mindset"?

Correct. Convenience is just too important. Also status symbols because people just want to be seen as big/successful/important/.... regardless if that damages things.

CEOs burning tons of fuel riding luxury jets does nothing for us. AI data centers clamoring for more electricity will do nothing for us.

Industry doesnt need to overproduce so much product right now, but it does, and sends tons of it to landfill every quarter

So if its already doing it, what makes you think they'll stop doing it if sales reduce a few % points.

This sounds like some empty corporate focus tested "Don't blame us, its not our fault" BS.

Where did I even allude to that?

I very clearly laid out where the problem is that we have to deal with. Which is the actual drivers of climate change. Not you choosing to drive to work instead of walking 8 miles in the heat.

I bet it's some of what you said, and maybe some of the well-known "buy experiences, not things" saying.

I'm not suggesting that saying is wrong, but I think people can mechanically go through the process of acquiring fancy-looking experiences because that is what you're SUPPOSED to do, just like people can collect fancy-looking posessions on auto pilot because that's what it means to be a successful person.

The last thing you said about people who claim they are "traveling" and not "vacationing" just REEKS of a hollow charade trying to prove that they are part of the upper crust of society.

The catch in all this is that we all have our own individualized needs, and a big part of the self-care work we need to do is figuring out what those things are. Like traveling and having fun vacations is awesome, but for most of us it's not going to be some instant key to life fulfillment. In my case, have always loved nature in general and aquatic life in particular. Some of my best vacation memories are swimming in little pockets of the ocean that looked like giant aquariums full of colorful fish and corals. But that's a rare occurrence and I will also never want to live somewhere tropical. Solution? I built a nice koi pond in my little back yard (in addition to all the other pets my family has). And in addition to the whole "caring for and interacting with water critters" angle, I got to do a lot of learning about chemistry and biology that are nowhere near my professional field, and I got to do a lot of DIYing, and I got a lot of exercise and fresh air out of it too! It helped much more than just my brain.

Prolly they all live in a big city. And living in a big city sucks ass, but most people have no choice because that's where the jobs are. I luckily live outside a big city in small village with forests and fields around me. But still near enough a medium-sized city so that I don't have to commute for ages. But I see that not everyone can live in places like mine, so the big city it is, where it is loud and full. Kinda understandable that u want to get away from it, then. But yeah, it doesn't mean that u need to fly to other side of the earth to do vacation, usually your own country has enough pretty spots to spend ur vacation.

"If all human emissions of heat-trapping gases were to stop today, Earth’s temperature would continue to rise for a few decades as ocean currents bring excess heat stored in the deep ocean back to the surface. Once this excess heat radiated out to space, Earth’s temperature would stabilize. Experts think the additional warming from this “hidden” heat is unlikely to exceed 0.9° Fahrenheit (0.5°Celsius). With no further human influence, natural processes would begin to slowly remove the excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and global temperatures would gradually begin to decline.

It’s true that without dramatic action in the next couple of decades, we are unlikely to keep global warming in this century below 2.7° Fahrenheit (1.5° Celsius) compared to pre-industrial temperatures—a threshold that experts say offers a lower risk of serious negative impacts. But the more we overshoot that threshold, the more serious and widespread the negative impacts will be, which means that it is never “too late” to take action."

Source: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/global-warming-frequently-asked-questions#hide28

Nothing short of immediate global transition to ~~nuclear power and/or nuclear fusion~~ renewable energy + storage coming online will stop what is happening.

ftfy

Also, nobody alive today will see the effect of any reversing we do in our time, even if we manage to find something and start tomorrow. But it'll get much worse if we do nothing.