The individual carbon footprint is not a red herring, it’s valid way of talking about GHG emissions with numbers.
More importantly, it’s the Fossil Fuel sector reminding you that you’re their bitch.
If you don’t like individual action, no problem, the systemic approach is to ban fossil fuels extraction, production and distribution. You’re OK with that, right?
edit: the generic you, not OP
Why is the B word removed? Is that a Lemmy.world automod or something? I had it happen to me as well, but I can say a million other words that don’t get automatically removed.
Systemic? You mean corporations, specific nameable corporations, not some amorphous system.
Not necessarily. I, for one, mostly (i.e. at least a little bit >50%) blame the deliberately-low-density zoning code and early FHA policy (e.g. redlining and deliberately recommending car-centric development patterns).
Did Standard Oil and General Motors have a huge influence? Sure, but they didn’t literally pass the laws.
I always assumed it was what was left of us after getting stepped on by the corporate behemoth if it were displeased by our peasant actions.
Sure, individual changes will not make nearly enough of a statistical difference. Lack of change in response to reality is however, morally abhorrent. Don’t be morally abhorrent 🤷 Maybe your actions will even have an affect on other people, who while also individually don’t make a statistical difference, make more than just you, and also makes fewer people surrounding you less morally abhorrent. You don’t need a bunch of policy makers to tell you what is right and wrong. You’re an adult. Do the right thing.
So you are concerned with climate change but would change nothing about your behavior to respond to it, unless you’re forced to? But also, you probably hope someone does force you? Where’s your agency? I don’t know how to tell you this, but this isn’t me telling you how to live your life, this is me explaining that you don’t even live in accordance with your own values. You are not even being your authentic self. Are you sure you actually care? I’m unconvinced.
It’s not about that. It’s about actually trying to solve the problem which we know from hundreds of years of history, almost always has to happen at the governmental level
Yeah, I still make choices in my personal life to try to live as sustainably as is practical, including major choices like career path. But the only solution that will ever actually work to our systemic issues is good policy. Not everyone has the comfort or privilege of being able to choose sustainable options where they can, and there are many cases where there simply is no sustainable option. Groceries at the store? I doubt a “regenerative agriculture” label even exists in the vast majority of places, so good luck choosing the sustainable option there. The alternative might be becoming a homesteader and growing all your own food, but obviously that’s not a solution for 99% of the population. We need policy to make there even be sustainable options in the first place, and more policy to make those sustainable options the preferred choice or maybe even the only choice.
Here’s a solution: force all new buildings to use a heat pump for heating and cooling.
Here’s another: tax all private jet flights $2000 per trip