If you are a normal individual and don’t control or have influence over the largest polluters in the world it seems to me your options are either:
- Come at it from an angle assuming people and nations will continue to pollute and try to clean up the mess (what this group is doing). It is a bit defeatist but more realist than other takes. I would assert that it is the opposite of helplessness. This is a group actually doing something that they are capable of doing and having some impact. Likely more impact than your or I.
- Try to shame individuals into doing better. This seems to have limited success as collective action today is much weaker than in the past, and this is more of a systems / incentives / externalities problem than an individual one.
- Come at it from an angle assuming people and nations will continue to pollute and try to clean up the mess (what this group is doing). It is a bit defeatist but more realist than other takes. I would assert that it is the opposite of helplessness. This is a group actually doing something that they are capable of doing and having some impact. Likely more impact than your or I. - Try to shame individuals into doing better. This seems to have limited success as collective action today is much weaker than in the past, and this is more of a systems / incentives / externalities problem than an individual one.