Due to the heatwave in the EU I’ve been experiencing a lot of climate change denial as well as a phenomenon that I can’t quite describe. It’s this pervassive idea that using a glass/paper straw or driving an electric vehicle somehow absolves you from doing more to care about the environment, but I honestly can’t fault people since it feels like that is all someone can do.
As an individual, what can I do to combat climate change or is the issue so systemic that I am powerless?
As an individual, the only way you’ll EVER make a difference is communal action.
If every single individual who even considered reducing their carbon footprint reduced it to 0 tomorrow, I’m not convinced it’d matter - the other half of the population would happily double theirs, prosper, use this advantage to lord over everyone else, and overall the problem would get worse (much like happens already). Individual action has effectively never achieved a large-scale change and never will.
So YES, you can make a difference. By finding or founding an org that’s committed to making a difference.