There is a false binary around mitigating climate change. "It's all caused from consumption" versus "it's all the fault of systems and leaders."

It's both. Industrial animal agriculture not only drives climate change, but myriad ecological calamities, including the sixth mass extinction event we're in right now. And the use of fossil fuels, the 115 million cars and trucks on American roads everyday, yes, consumption matters.

Of course, so does the fact that corporations knew about climate change and did nothing, political leaders have failed us, etc etc.

But an article like this chooses a side in the false binary. It uses harsh language like "liars" and "apocalypse porn". It belittles people who chose to bike to work or abstain from meat and calls them "radical."

An article like this appeals to the "reassuring lie" side of the cartoon, with everyone queued for that movie over the "inconvenient truth" one. And it drags poor Jane Goodall into the middle of it.

Most people don't want to have to change anything, so its encouraging to think there's some panacea out there, like regeneration, and we can go on living as we do now. Or, at least, it offers a much easier behavioral adjustment: don't stop eating meat or driving your car or heating your home with fuel oil, it says, but try to produce less waste, mmkay?

I mean, plastic is a problem, and shipping is a problem, but our buying things isn't??

Insane.

Hard pass.