Not being an expert on climate change, and being a perpetual traveler, constantly excused when expressing my opinion in the company of important figures from the worlds of politics, business, and science, I will share my view here once more.
The dichotomy between ecologically-sensitive people and the ignorant or suspicious ones is no longer relevant. Nowadays everybody is aware because Fear is present, and this is something (unfortunately) everybody understands. Also, the discussion is no longer happening between activists who propose purple dreams and less consumption vs cold-hearted capitalists who prefer Quantity measurements to establish quality-of-life standards. The discussion has moved on a table where one side sits those who understand profit, share-holder satisfaction and the mentality of investors through Growth, and the other side hosts those who understand that although this is killing the planet, the new system or new entity which will be responsible for the planet has not been found or invented yet.
In my opinion, the only entities which can save the planet are those from the corporate world, its executives, those exact top 500 oil and gas conglomerates and all the rest, who think that cutting down 50% of production (let alone the 80-90% proposed in some cases based purely on ecological studies) would be the end of the world, the economic system, the households. Indeed it might turn out to be, and a new system (substituting capitalism) is nowhere to be seen at the moment, although a new capitalist theory is urgently needed. The new economic proposition must have at its core the notion that saving the world is not somebody else’s responsibility, because 1) we must be able to live on this planet (despite the fact that it is an economic planet above all), and 2) profit will melt away along with your stock shares once the pavement on the streets is on fire and you cannot breath…
Borrowing from other successful models (organic foods, for example, new technologies), will help executive boards and decision-makers both in the business and the political world to view ecology as 1) profitable, and 2) as a new trend. Both elements define the markets, and they always work like a domino effect: A major shark has to become vegan without losing much muscle, few more medium ones will follow, and its major opponent will turn vegan in response, slowly turning things around.
The over-simplicity of this thinking should not cause it to be underestimated. Every breakthrough on a social level kicked off like this although it sounded too easy and naive at first, especially when the intellectuals were discussing it in detail. The current approach, hopelessly perpetuated, lacks the quality it claims to possess as an innate characteristic: it is not pragmatic anymore.