Also a bunch of companies out there are actually under some megacorp. Have fun completely cutting off Nestle or Unilever out of your life[0], for example. The information is there, but it's delusional to think everyone can manage to avoid all these brands altogether for various reasons (access to alternatives, price vs. income, etc.).

[0] https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/companies-control-e...

I don't agree. The sheer volume of information that's available in the public space and the size and scope of large corporations makes "voting with their wallets" impractical.

This winter, my driveway developed some major cracks from the snow melt. How can I solve this problem responsibly?

Not fix it? Then I have to park on the street and drive my car unnecessarily to keep it out of the way of the plow. I will end up with craters and mud slide in my yard, a useless garage, and I'll probably have to fix it anyway if I want to use/resell my property.

Move to a warmer climate? Then someone else moves into my house and we've wasted resources just shuffling people about.

So what I will probably do is go to a company that does driveway repair and have them fix it, because then the space is usable and I don't have to change my whole life or live with a dangerous/ugly pit in my yard. But I can't tell you if they will do it efficiently. They're the experts, so obviously they know more than I do.

What would you do? What would anybody do? How am I supposed to both identify an environmentally-friendly alternative and muster the courage to act on it?

I don't have an answer to this specific scenario that you described. That said, I wasn't saying we should all suddenly become 100% socially responsible overnight - it is just not practical.

There are lots of things that are super easy to do, and yet have positive influence on the environment, society etc. We can keep a handful of cloth bags handy, when we go grocery shopping. This isn't hard to do, and will help reduce plastic bags. We don't have to wait for legislation to act on this. We don't have to replace our perfectly working phone, every other year (or every year) and throw it in the landfill. And so on.

These are definitely small compared to the pollution caused by corporations. But corporations exist to sell to consumers. Plus, change has to start somewhere. Why not start at home?

That probably doesn't help. A cotton bag requires about 130x more resources to produce than a standard HDPE carrier bag. If you re-use a plastic bag three times, you'd need to use your cotton bag nearly 400 times to break even. The cotton bag is likely to wear out substantially sooner than that. The plastic bag can be disposed of responsibly by recycling, incineration or as a container for non-recyclable domestic waste.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

It doesn't really matter who you blame in this case, because the solution is the same either way: stop allowing stores to offer free plastic bags.

And if anyone would accuse my of rationalizing my inefficiencies, then that is just one more reason why you cannot trust individuals to make the right choices.

India recently stopped plastic bags in stores, and most shops don't have bags that you can buy (plastic or otherwise). You have to bring your own bags, or you can carry your stuff in your hands :P It is so painful that people don't forget bags while grocery shopping.

How to muster the courage... I don't know, that's very personal. But it's encouraging to know humans communicated in this manner with their natural environment for thousands of years.

If they were going to do it, it would already be done. The reason we haven't done it yet is the same reason we won't ever do it. Individual responsibility is not a solution here, so I'd rather we not bet the future of humanity on it being one.

No one can DIY everything.

Well, technically they can, it's just that that sort of lifestyle is unrecognizable to us today, and would basically take all your time. They would be totally left behind by modern society, ie hermits.

Even if I were a globe trotting immortal, I cannot legally DIY most common electronics because of patent law.

[1] https://qz.com/1585027/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-cotto...

> This assessment does not take marine litter into account—so as far as that gigantic problem is concerned, plastics are almost certainly the worst

Cheaper wins, more profitable wins, regardless of whether good or not. Frequently when we already knew it's not (leaded petrol, radium on watch dials etc). Far more quickly since the changes of the 1980s - deregulation, privatisation, and so forth. If it wasn't deregulated enough, move it out of sight and offshore it somewhere with weaker standards.

So I would tend to say we sacrificed the future for an extra 0.5c on the dollar.

A lot of people like to say they're worried about the environment, but very few change their life in significant ways to help it.

Starbucks straw-free solution was a plastic lid that uses more plastic than the straw.

Family made major changes, but it feels increasingly pointless, and increasingly like spiting ourselves for no reason. Every shop brings home more plastic, used in ever more profligate ways, and mostly impossible to avoid. What was the point changing?

This may be true, but it was still a worthwhile initiative. The new lids can be recycled, whereas the straws couldn't[0], and their new policy has drawn a considerable amount of attention to the issue of single use plastics.

0: https://mic.com/articles/190171/starbucks-will-ban-plastic-s...

I did it, and it is really worth the effort.

What I changed:

- buy liquids in glass only -> healthier and reduced container garbage to 2/5

- use soda stream for mineral water

- buy fresh food -> healthier and reduces plastics packing

- buy used devices (where it makes sense) -> cars, phones, pc's etc. -> much cheaper, reduces waste -> don't be beta tester for newest products

- use rechargable batteries with smart recharger (to benefit the life cycle)

- avoid unfixable devices in general

- use grandma's household remedy, e.g. baking powder and vinegar instead of chemicals (packed in big one-way plastic bottles) to clean your house drains

There are many more tips in the Internet. For instance:

7 Ways to Support the Environment in 2018

https://www.care2.com/greenliving/7-ways-to-support-the-envi...

Further recommendations are appreciated.

But do our children