The alternative is that you make do, because this is a serious situation, far more serious than a business deal.

Ironically, your future income and the income and quality of your children's lives will be directly affected by your actions today. But, people just put it away in their minds, file it under "well, can't possibly do that" and forget about it.

If the worst that can happen is some scary figures pop out of the news now and again, what's the point in changing?

We will all look back in ten years and say, we had a chance to do something, but we didn't.

It is a prisoner dilemma of the grandest scale that has origins predating multi-cellular organisms.

My point is that this can't just be a thing that an individual decides. We need country-level or international-level cooperation. Prisoner's dilemma, as others have pointed out.

That is one way to look at it.

Supposing we said, physical meetings only work to an extent -- they pollute the atmosphere. Therefore there is no alternative but to make virtual meetings work.

I put it to you that virtual meetings would work well - if the technology isn't quite there yet, it would be rapidly improved - if we took the attitude that we have to make them work, instead of taking the attitude that we have to travel.