One of the biggest problems in society is that you can’t get people to agree to do something if it depends on everyone else doing it in order to get a good result. It’s a social bootstrapping problem. People often say things like – well if I stop driving my SUV, what difference will that make? If I stop driving it, nobody else will, so there’s no point.
I personally believe that one should usually act such that if everyone acted the way I act, then the overall result would be good. My basis for this is that if you look at a positive final result in such situations, then the only path to that postitive final result is almost always a few individuals taking responsibility independently of any certainty about whether the other members of the group are going to follow their lead. In getting from state A, with high Co2 emissions, to state B, with low emissions, how is it possible unless some individuals initially take responsibility. It’s like the “journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step”. I don’t see any route to reduction of Co2 emissions for example, other than a few individuals and then gradually more changing their lifestyles. Of course policy and scientific progress and technology will help, but the same thing is now happening on a national scale – the EU doesn’t want to be the first to take on economic disadvantage to take the lead in emissions reductions.