While I agree that we blaming individuals is ridiculous, actually addressing this issue and getting towards zero emissions anywhere near enough time will make:
> significant personal expense
Look like luxury living.
Our economy is energy, and currently the vast majority of the energy comes from hydrocarbons. We simply cannot scale renewables up high enough, fast enough, to avoid catastrophe without a change in live style so severe that most people would over throw governments in protest.
People on this site think wearing a face mask during a pandemic is a material injustice.
I dispute that the economy is energy or even proportional to it. California, as inefficient as it is on a global scale, has substantially decoupled its economy from energy consumption over the last thirty years.
You can't look at local energy usage and make this claim. It's not only the goods and services that come into the state that require energy in other countries, but all of the capital the flows in as well that ultimately has it's source in energy someplace else on the globe.
I recommend reading Smil's Energy and Civilization for a better picture of this.
California has similar consumption import patterns as other U.S. states like Texas, but compared to those other states the economy of California has departed from their energy/gsp ratios.
> significant personal expense
Look like luxury living.
Our economy is energy, and currently the vast majority of the energy comes from hydrocarbons. We simply cannot scale renewables up high enough, fast enough, to avoid catastrophe without a change in live style so severe that most people would over throw governments in protest.
People on this site think wearing a face mask during a pandemic is a material injustice.
We aren't going to address climate change.