But you aren't going to convince me that it's fixing any problem.
I'll continue to be honest.
At that scale it really doesn't matter at all. It's a percentage of a percentage. The reverse of orders of magnitudes.
I guess when you are running a G20 country let me know and then at that point I would still say you're in for a struggle. I won't hold my breath.
So yeah. Your and my individual actions don't mean the slightest thing for climate change regardless of how you frame it. I'm sorry if that narrative doesn't make you feel good.
Looks like you do agree that at real scale it would have an impact. But whether you're an individual or a G20 leader, none of what we do matters?
I do agree we're locked into a web of incentives that discourages us from making sustainable choices. It's not any single person's fault. A few individuals giving up meat won't slow down climate change. At the same time, consuming more and more meat like we do now certainly helps accelerate it. Not to mention what we eat is only a small part of the equation. Now we're looking at changing our behaviours in many other areas too.
It's a predicament indeed. What can people actually do? They can continue business as usual, or worse, double down and consume even more, or they can change their behaviour. Each action is a vote. Just like in elections, one vote doesn't matter, a lot of votes do.
Yes it may not matter. Yes they might be hypocrites and just doing it to make their egos feel good. Or maybe they just want to be more compassionate and do what they can to contribute no matter how small. And in a violent world like ours, if there are people wanting to make compassionate choices, we should encourage them.
Yes it is not effective if you're the only one in the world doing it, but it has always been about convincing others to drastically reduce or stop completely, whether through word of mouth or policy change.
Producing animal products is unsustainable and come with enormous environmental impacts [1][2]. We need both top-down and bottom-up approaches. So it's worthwhile what individuals and companies/governments choose to do. It's not one or the other.
[1] https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food [2] https://ourworldindata.org/land-use