[Gedrovits]

First of all, don't give up too easy. It's a lot easier to say: we are screwed, my contribution will not change anything. This is wrong approach to the problem, changes start from somewhere.

Imagine the startup, who don't have customers yet and just gives up (because what's point, they will not come). The more traction they have, the more snowballish it become.

How regular people can help?

1) Try to use renewable materials around you (bags, not plastic bags, use the fabric)

2) Sort the garbage (don't know about US), but in Europe this is real thing (organic, general, electronics, etc)

3) Try to limit the car or any fossil fuel usage in your household.

3.1) Don't have 1 car per each family member

4) Don't buy and throw away clothes too often, if you do, return to second hand

5) Use energy saver functions at it's max

6) Stop searching for someone to blame and "Just DO IT!" (c) Shia

How IT people can help?

1) Write less energy consumption programs and servers, they eat too much now

2) Move toward real innovations in "green" tech, not the pseudo ones to collect money and bail

Samsung once done the big screen phone, how the iPhone users called them? "Shovel" phones / users. Then came this "innovative" Apple iPhone with the same big screen and it suddenly became "mainstream". Don't be afraid to be first in something good, especially if this is a future of your planet.

Don't expect that someone will make this problems "go away" or people fly away from here. Humans managed to make orbit a trash can too, so we don't go anywhere in far future.

[hacker42]

I think the only way out is political top-down decisions rather than mental shifts. Habits are just too strong and the competitive disadvantage of frugality just too inconvenient for most of our primate brains. Environmentalism and passive-aggressively oppressing of habits via high moral self-standards is too easily strawmanned or misinterpreted as ideology by the mobs. -- The most ignorant win.

The largest impact will be by China, India and Africa, so we'll quickly need to popularize green energy such as solar and perhaps the kinds of nuclear technology which can't be used for weapons (nuclear waste might be preferable over damages caused by pollution and climate change).

We need to be decisive and strong, which might involve bold and expensive media events and populism.

The ones who are able to think in the long term need to stop fighting themselves for superficial issues, political correctness and minor details. We need to strengthen our arguments instead and keep in mind that we are following the same ultimate goal.

[Joof]

One way to influence politics is to spread the culture of being habitually green. The big gains may all be political or require extensive city design, but changing the mindset to 'people want green; and superficial won't cut it' is a big part of making that happen.

Do I want to give up my car? No. What if I did want to; how would that change my outlook? I'd want cities and a job that accommodates those desires. What if everyone wanted to? Those cities would be built and politics might make cars more restricted.

[Gedrovits]

OK, so you want car, then we need to find out WHY you need it. The real reason behind it and make it more optimal.

There are hybrid, full electric cars out there, so if something hard to be changed, we can try to replace it with more optimal.

Going back Dark Age again will not help a lot and people will not agree to this.

[x5n1]

Stop participating in the economy as much as possible. Learn to live a subsistence lifestyle. Move to the second or third world and learn how to live like the third world in a very small amount of space consuming the least amount of resources necessary to live. You can do it. Also don't have any children.

While you do this the capitalists will be trying to move all the 3rd world people to the 1st world lifestyle. Just to balance things out.

[indlebe]

The fact that this is down voted shows what an elephant in the room this really is.

[x5n1]

This sort of thinking that you have the power to make a change is a religious belief and a control mechanism our society has to prevent revolutions and evolution. You want change, it will have to be revolutionary with completely different economic logic than that which is the basis of our society. Short of that any action is a drop in the ocean of economic policy, human psychology, desire, consumerism, etc. The various forces that make us produce and consume at greater and greater levels and at greater and greater speed with reckless abandon to pretty much anything else. At best we pay lip service to these things the same way kids do to their parents when they know they're not doing right but enjoy doing it, stuff like sex.

[indlebe]

You've lost me towards the end. However I disagree with your opener. If you change your habits and appear to lead a happier, more satisfying life others will notice this and adopt similar habits. A sort-of reverse keeping up with the joneses.

[Chronic51]

I, and millions of others, say: "we are screwed, my contribution will not change anything"

[Gedrovits]

That is the reason why nothing changes. Invest in growth, it's popular now. The more people lobby the green interests (don't confuse with any political "green"), the more politics will adapt to them and provide laws to support their beliefs.

Currently this always looks like, hey, X doing Y times more than I do, why I should care? This will not change anything.

Blaming China now is quite not fair, because other countries already caused this global warming, not China, they now just want to grow like the others.

This mindset of modern humans lead to lost of humanity itself. Most of the people don't care about others, they are selfish. Until every bit of climate change hit them personally (like your house underwater, boom!) then they will start to think about that and demand changes.

So "Plan B" will be waiting when this thing will blow into the face of those, but as always this will be too late.

[lossolo]

I do a lot from this list BUT... then i look at China that has carbon emissions equal to EU + US + INDIA all together.. and i am really concerned.

[Gedrovits]

6) Stop searching for someone to blame and "Just DO IT!" (c) Shia