Individual Climate Action Debate

Talk about it (worked for the ozone layer and some pesticides), use less (not that hard), support any alternative. And I think this works for any topic. The helplessness is a feeling, hard to assess the impact of individual actions, so why bother? You do what you can/think of and continue living - with a critical mass things will move in the right direction.

Lots of people care. But 1 person caring usually doesn't do much. That person might be able to make some choices that reduce their impact on the planet, but the effect is miniscule and the effort they have to put in might be immense. Asking billions of people to consciously choose a harder life to hopefully prevent an issue they might not be seeing in front of their eyes on a daily basis, is a really big ask.It needs to be top down action. Government regulation. Technological advancement

The most efficient things you can do are 1) vote, 2) contact your elected representatives 3) donate money, say 3% of your income. These steps will have minimal impact on your personal quality of life compared to their impact on the world. Personal lifestyle changes like using an electric car are secondary - as you mention, it's better to change the incentives.

An individual giving up their car and living in a yurt has literally zero impact on the global problem. It’s like being in a burning stadium and saying “well that person won’t toss their 4 oz drink on the fire, so why should we bother calling the fire department?” Strong concerted effort from people with social/economic/political power is pretty much the only thing that can actually move the needle in terms of biodiversity loss, global warming and all its consequences, etc. just imagin

People here argue things like that if whole industries, laws, etc don't change then an individual's actions don't matter.I see it the opposite. Only if I change can I expect or hope anyone else will.My list includes:- Flying less- Driving less- Eating low on the food chain- Avoiding packaged food- Owning and acquiring less stuff... things like that.My life has never been better. I wish I had started this change decades earlier.

Individual action can have an effect, but those are bad suggestions that will have negligible effect unless adopted almost universally.Things like driving less, flying less, eating less meat and buying/throwing away less stuff are things where individual actions can actually make a difference.Watching less TV doesn't accomplish anything other making you feel like you are taking action. If you want to make a small change that will actually accomplish something, try taking public t

Very often these personal efforts are simply virtue signalling or a way for people to feel better about themselves. Doesn't mean that you should be wasteful with your resources or actively damage your environment but please, don't pretend to be saving the earth by drinking less milk.Where a difference can be made:- politics - if you are in politics yourself, or you can lobby and exercise some pressure to dictate policy, that can go a long way- industry leaders can actually mak

I feel like a small fish incapable of making significant difference. I have reduced my emissions, ride a bike everywhere and am trying to eat mostly plant based foods. What else can I do?Is there anyone here on HN that can make a bigger difference - any lawmakers, anyone connected with lawmakers, any high ups in a large company, any influencers? It is your obligation to help us - we need you to be our voice.

If everyone did it, it'd make a noticeable impact. That impact isn't enough to fix things, but thinking "oh well I won't do anything because they're not doing anything" is not the kind of thinking that will get us to a solution. Act to your capacity and trust that everyone else will do the same. Either you will be right and things improve quite a bit, or you will be wrong and things improve very little. In both cases at least you've stopped making it wor

Individual actions in this context are like trying to put down the fire with a single glass of water. It will certainly not hurt if you do it, but for it to have any significant effect you need everybody else to do the same at the same time. And the best way to have everyone do it is to push politicians to commit to it and create public policies to enforce it. The huge problem with individual actions is that they make people feel good about themselves, makes them feel like they did their part, w