Sorry, had a busy day yesterday and didn’t get a chance to reply. On the idea that “influencing the behaviors of others in an instant is just in the fantasy realm” the problem is that, either by fluke or by chance, I recently encountered a situation where such a thing happened, and that after challenging someone’s beliefs they considered them and changed their view on the world (to a large enough degree).

I also understand that I need to change what I am doing, but I can find it really hard to do so. There’s so much that I could do but I never manage to get myself to bother. I sometimes sit in this weird realm where I go about my day with a smile on my face, then retreat to a shell of worry at night, when I do not have the opportunity to change the things around me.

On the spectrum you speak of, I seem to exist at both ends at different times, depend on whether I am feeling like blaming or excusing myself. It reminds me of the chess term Zugzwang (where the only moves available are bad ones), except the only easy moves available are the bad ones, and the good ones exist behind a wall of effort.

Thank you again for your extended a thoughtful replies.

I find replying to this comment difficult due to the harsh challenge it poses to my ideas.

Maybe I can give money to help others, and maybe it is a more effective way to help people (and this comment has motivated me to do so at the next available opportunity). However, I do not agree that “stopping consumption altogether make no difference”. Consumption is an act that requires things to be produced, almost always with the emission of greenhouse gases. While I do wish to help people, I would consider giving money while continuing to contribute to climate change to be a cop-out, helping while hurting. Just because you do a right thing after a wrong thing, it doesn’t mean you do nothing wrong.

Thanks for the reply. While I am aware that people are neither good nor bad, I just find it hard to deal with the fact everyone around me is continuously making decisions that are bad for the environment and both mine and their future.

Thanks, I just guess it just find it hard to keep on going some days. I think one of the reasons I place a decent amount of personal responsibility upon myself is a form of hero fantasy, that I’ll do something to change the world someday, that there is some meaning to me being here that will be massively tangible some day. The semi-urgency of the climate crisis and an indifference among my peers also means that I feel like I need to compensate for some of their actions as I cannot convince them to change. In terms of being “forced into” circumstances, a large part of my concern is taking responsibility for not trying to change those circumstances and not fighting against decisions made by others in my family, friends and wider social circle in regards to the environment, and instead standing by and letting things go.