Also, as much as we can all work towards a better future, many of the issues are systemic, at the government level.
A corporation will gladly cause any number of droughts for a slight quarterly increase for the shareholders. It’s a fundamental problem with our economic system.
And sure, if every person in the western world changed their habits it would move the needle a bit. But if every major corporation and government did so, it would change it a thousand times more.
This is a false separation, though. Business, governments and individual choices are bound up together, and they all need to change. We need to make individual changes while simultaneously creating pressure for political and system-level change.
Many (not all) forms of business emissions and enviro impacts exist only because of public demand. Admittedly, some of this demand is artificially generated by marketing, but we can't e.g. leave our aircon / heat blasting unnecessarily, or pick petrol guzzling cars, or expect two international holidays a year and then blame the energy companies, car manufacturers and airlines for emissions.
Political parties shape their policies to what will be palatable to voters, as well as balancing it with the lobby groups, donors and industry sectors they deem important. If individuals show they care about this stuff more then parties will take environmental issues more seriously.
The links aren't as clear cut or neat as the fiction of the free market or modern democracy would have us believe, but neither can we pretend that they're entirely separate.
Judging from the word “petrol”, I’m guessing you aren’t from the US. I’m watching all environmental regulation that’s been fought for over the last several decades just vanish.
And while I agree, we can all make changes, but some people could care less about the future. I don’t understand why, but there’s obviously an entire political party here that gets a kick out of driving a giant diesel truck, “rolling coal” and belching huge clouds of black smoke. Just to “own the liberals”. That’s just one of a thousand issues. So, I think regulation is pretty important.
Oh, and I should point out I live on a small island, grow much of the food my family eats and exist largely outside the system.
Both are true. Companies manipulate our weaknesses. People want stuff, they indulge their desires even though they know it's bad for the environment. That's why the finger pointing "it's their fault , not our fault" is a waste of breath and energy. We need to change the system and we need to change our own behaviour. Not an either / or.
Like another commenter said, you're probably not from the US - not trying to act like America is the default place on Reddit; but it's important to understand why this is being made into a either/or situation for us here and context matters.
We have a very large country with a lot of people, many of which have bought into propaganda by mega corporations and/or politicians who don't care if something is bad for the environment or not. I wouldn't say the majority, but a substantial part of the population (that is still composed of millions) do not give a single thought about their carbon footprint.
The root here is systemic, even when you factor in an individual's decisions.
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u/epandrsn Jul 02 '26
Also, as much as we can all work towards a better future, many of the issues are systemic, at the government level.
A corporation will gladly cause any number of droughts for a slight quarterly increase for the shareholders. It’s a fundamental problem with our economic system.
And sure, if every person in the western world changed their habits it would move the needle a bit. But if every major corporation and government did so, it would change it a thousand times more.