Edit: I wanted to apologize after reading some of the comments. You raise some legitimate points, I realize that there is a subtle malthusian element to this chart and some of you feel like a burden already. Furthermore, you raise a good point about corporate pollution, oil companies, and how their footprint is much greater than average plebs like us.
That’s 100% valid and I don’t disagree with you at all. My “compromise” I guess would be that continue to apply pressure and protest against large corporations, but in terms of ourselves, just pick a few things you can cut down on yourself, it does not have to be everything on this list.
For example, I really prefer having animal products in my diet, but I am willing to live in a small apartment , car-free, and not go on vacation much in my adulthood. In the same way, you guys can pick what you are comfortable with in reducing and what you do not want to compromise on.
All of us have different standards of living and we are flexible on some things, and some things we are not flexible. That is alright, just consider changing what you are comfortable with, but please do not think you are a burden. Your presence and your life is valuable to me. I don’t like to demoralize people.
People are acutely aware of climate change, but our current form of government doesn’t give people a voice in systemic issues. Propaganda like this doesn’t inform anyone, it blames them, and making people think it’s a personal problem is WAY better then telling people to ignore the problem.
For example if you had 10’s of thousands of fish wash up on the Texas shore because of lack of oxygen in the gulf of mexico. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/12/1181661320/fish-kill-texas-beaches-explained Then you can’t just ignore that. But if you’ve already internalized that it was your fault because of your carbon footprint, you won’t do anything else except be sad. You might even be like Boxer in Animal Farm, thinking that somehow you are personally responsible for the issue. But that’s wrong. Much like in Animal Farm the problem was systemic, and no matter how hard Boxer worked, he couldn’t fix the issue of greed and that was the point.
That’s exactly the response that I’d be going for as a pro-oil propagandist: Nothing you can do matters! The government (the only entity that can rein in these corps though regulation) won’t listen to you so don’t even bother to vote!
People who pay attention to their carbon footprint are much, much more likely to vote for candidates that support climate change infinitives. Many don’t see it as blaming themselves, but as a roadmap on how to do things better. Again, everyone starts somewhere. For many people, that starting point is their own impact, how ever so small.
No, people who pay attention to their carbon footprint are more likely to be liberals and vote blue no matter who. “I must vote harder, the Democrats are always right.” Which ultimately is exactly what propaganda like this wants you to do. This type of green washing encourages that kind of thinking. “The solution can only be found within the system, it cannot be the system that is the problem, only my interaction with it.”