Most people seem to view acting to avoid polluting and caring about the environment as deprivation and sacrifice. They seem to ask, “why should I sacrifice something I like, like flying, meat, air conditioning, etc? If billions of others don’t, then what I do doesn’t matter.
The result is most of the world, or at least most of America, contributing to global warming beyond nearly any contribution by anyone in history, well beyond the Paris agreement’s allotment per person.
For me the answer is clear, that behaviors that pollute less, like not flying, eating fresh vegetables, and dressing for the weather so you don’t have to heat or cool the air, improve my life. Not polluting improves my life.
Few people see not flying as better for them than flying, though.

What 80s pop music teaches us about global warming

The other day I stumbled on the song below for the first time in maybe a decade or more.
Listening to the words, the song applies to today nearly as much as then.
The reason to avoid polluting: Because we are the world, which we’ve somehow we’ve lost sight of. We could use this message today.
Instead of calling for others to change their behavior and to pass laws, we could all take more responsibility for how our actions affect others, including future generations. We are the children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBI
Maybe the time has come for another “We Are the World” to change people’s behavior.