I think part of that "giving up" comes from there not being a plausible vision to a sustainable future. If all it took was cutting down, even significantly, on daily indulgences, and a clear set of numbers showed that, then I believe we could get people on board. But the main issue is that power brokers, both in policy and in media, refuse to make those sacrifices, and their decisions have several of orders of magnitude more effect than individual actions. And the individuals know it.