Eventually large number of people will reduce large amounts of emissions. Corporations, governments, and other institutions will follow.I don't believe it. I don't believe cruise ship operators or aluminium smelting companies will change anything based on whether a New York or Sydney person drives less often and nitpicks about plastic food packaging. They need regulating, hard, and that means a worse economy and unhappier people with lower quality of life paying more for goods "for their own good", and that means it won't happen.
I feel it unfair that I should lead the charge to hermit-life eating leafy gruel and nitpicking over plastic lids while my brother flies halfway round the world on international holidays - and he does that because he's annoyed that he should have to care about climate emissions from an occasional holiday while business people fly over the pond for a half-day meeting and while cruise ships exist.
This is the kind of personal feeling the anti-climate-change movement has to address to get people on board, and chastising people "it'll be a catastrophe" isn't enough. I know it feels like it should be enough, but it isn't enough.
not just your reduction, but you will lead others, who otherwise might feel alone, to join you.
Only if I tell them, which I won't. The sort of people who self-promote are driving the bad things of the world - envy, aspirational Instagram lifestyles, consumerism. And the people who tell people "I'm vegan" are the butt of jokes and the hated holier-than-thou preachy people.
The people who actually will reduce their emissions will just quietly do that, like they just quietly check up on an elderly neighbour without making a fuss about how great they are for doing so. Self-sacrifice for the greater good isn't catching like shopping and showing off is.
You will also find after reducing driving, flying, meat, etc, that you'll wish you had changed earlier. You replace those things with other things you like more.
That doesn't follow. My alternatives to driving are worse than driving, otherwise I wouldn't drive right now. And I like cake more than meat - but I don't want to replace meat with cake, thanks, that would be a bad trade.