Who's Responsible for Climate Change?

Let's operate on the premise that there has been climate change/global warming. What are the causes? Who is most responsible? Consumers, industry, or both?

Globally, nineteen of the last 20 years are now the warmest on record. Forests in the Arctic Circle are aflame, the Southwestern U.S. is mired in a megadrought, storms are becoming more intense, glaciers are fast receding, and a colossal Antarctic ice shelf has destabilized and threatens to redraw maps all over the globe. The ocean is warming, rising, acidifying, and losing oxygen.

Industry is trying to shift the blame. British Petroleum, or BP, first promoted and soon successfully popularized the term “carbon footprint". However, MIT researchers calculated the carbon emissions for “a homeless person who ate in soup kitchens and slept in homeless shelters" in the U.S. That destitute individual will still indirectly emit some 8.5 tons of carbon dioxide each year. As long as fossil fuels are the basis for the energy system, you could never have a sustainable carbon footprint.

WARNING: THIS TOPIC WILL REQUIRE SOME HOMEWORK!
Please read these article:
https://mashable.com/feature/carbon-footprint-pr-campaign-sham
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/nyregion/lamont-doherty-earth-observatory-global-warming.html

What can be done? How can individuals influence industry? There’s an individual's most potent tool: “Voting is the number one action,” said Hassol. Voting for what? Voting for leaders who, among other things, have plans or strategies to slash the rampant flow of fossil fuels through the economy, mandate buildings that use less energy, and accelerate the electrification of America’s cars and trucks (transportation is the leading U.S. contributor of greenhouse gas emissions). Joe Biden, has a climate task force that recommends transitioning to 100 percent renewable electricity (wind, solar, geothermal) in 15 years.

While the pandemic has laid bare that our personal actions alone won’t stabilize the planet’s disrupted climate, some voluntary decisions beyond voting can still be important, and influential. Here’s a poignant example: When someone installs solar panels on their roof, their neighbors are more likely to install the panels too, a trend that’s shown in multiple studies. “It’s the effect of social contagion,” said Hassol.

Some possible solutions:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/climate/netting-zero-debate.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/opinion/coronavirus-climate-antonio-guterres.html?auth=linked-google

Jim Peterson of the Humanist Society and Tampa Bay Post Carbon Council will have more information and be able to answer some of your questions.

This is not a debate on the existence of climate change or global warming. It is a forum to discuss how we can start to reverse the negative changes.