I am spreading the knowledge that individualized improvements are not nearly enough and we have to change the structure of our entire economy to save the environment. I am optimizing my life to organize around that.
I also think it can only be done through an international planned economy, seeing as capitalist nation states keep going to war against each other and prioritize short term gains in their competition with one another.
you are being downvoted because you speak the inconvenient truth.
People in this thread want to feel like they save the world by buying an EV but that change is statistically insignificant (even if everyone on the planet bought an EV).
I fully agree with you that real change is going beyond our actual economy. The "micro-step" changes that we are taking right now with solar and EVs are almost useless.
Thank you. These changes are nice in the right context but are even worse than useless if they distract from systemic changes. Especially useless is the kind of personal change like buying solar panels or an EV that take being middle or upper middle class as the economy continues to get worse for most people. Almost every major source of carbon pollution is socially interdependent(eg transportation) or controlled by a few near-monopolies (eg general purpose energy production). And lots basically exist due to how capitalism controls the state (as it always has) for its own purposes, eg in the massive subsidization of industrial meat production. We need social solutions that correspond to how the economy is socially specialized and interconnected.
The distraction here is exactly the issue. It actually removes the urgency of climate change. Companies greenwashed us into thinking that all it take is buy a upper-class Tesla to save the planet (Yes I'm reusing this example because I see it every single day in the bay area). This is not the solution, you are marginally polluting less with a Tesla but you are not solving the issue at all. you are only making yourself feel good.
Even worse, as you say it creates two class of people based on money: The ones that can afford the green-washed toys and the ones that cannot and are now blamed for "polluting".
Real change is going beyond single occupancy car for example, or reducing over population on the planet. But those are mainly economical changes that nobody wants to conveniently talk about because those are actually hard. Buying solar panels, walking to work or taking shorter showers are conveniently nitpicked easy metrics for feel-good effect.
I also think it can only be done through an international planned economy, seeing as capitalist nation states keep going to war against each other and prioritize short term gains in their competition with one another.