As far as big business goes.
I was watching a documentary about global shipping and the impact it has on the environment. It was on norwegian television so I won't link it, but it had me thinking about a few things.
At one point in the documentary, it talked about ship fuel, and how a lot of big ships have engines that will run on anything that can ignite. So you can throw gasoline, wood, whatever you want in there. As long as it doesn't explode but does ignite, it will keep the engine running. One such fuel was a kind of raw oil bi-product, some kind of really viscous oil that's really thick. Thick like molasses! And it's really cheap. But most countries have laws that prohibit ships from running on that fuel while in their waters. Country borders extend a certain amount of miles out from shore, and past that are international waters. So what major shipping companies do is, they run on the cheap and really environment-unfriendly oil while in international waters, because no country has jurisdiction there, and then they use "clean" fuel while inside country borders. But since they only extend so far to sea, that literally means if a boat is going from Asia to America, it's in international waters like 98% of the trip. So for virtually the whole trip, it's running on the worst kind of fuel, environmentally speaking. I don't see any solution to that problem, tbh. It would take a small miracle. If every currency in the world was interchangeable 1 to 1, then maybe? But that will literally never happen. I don't think that's even a pessimistic viewpoint. Look at history. I don't believe world peace is engineerable, and i don't think it's natural, and I don't think it will ever happen.
The documentary also gave some stats about how many ships travel each day, how far they travel in total, etc. etc. I don't remember specifics, but something like 50-90,000 ships are at sea at any given time. Not boats, ships, like huge ships with thousands of containers, oil tankers, that kind of stuff. Each and every one of them chew through more fuel than every car in a middle-sized village on a given day.
The real kicker is how supply lines are set up around the world. Economy growth in certain countries is in part tied to how we send raw materials that they then make products from. You know how a sheep can be sheered in Ireland, the wool gets sent to India for coloring, then to China for sowing, then back to Ireland for sale. It's tied to how certain countries are emerging from poverty, so while buying local is more environment friendly in CO2 terms, the picture isn't that simple imo. Arguably, a lot of developing countries can't afford to think of the environment, and there are some theories that suggest that when a person reaches a certain buying power, they automatically start caring for the environment. The theory makes a lot of sense to me.
Certain medicines are made in specific countries and only those countries. Certain natural resources only grow here, or there. Because these ships also ship merchandise like clothing, electronics, weapons, food, etc. around the world. So much of what makes up our current world is so reliant on the shipping industry. I don't see an immediate solution to that problem either. Electric planes maybe? I don't know if electric boats work. But there's not enough cobalt to make electric cars for all the car driving people in the world nonetheless, so I dunno about the sustainability of electric travel on a global scale. That's not me saying it won't work, that's me saying: I actually don't know. I don't see a solution to that problem either.
So I agree that the "change" definitely has to come from the top. But the pessimistic part of me comes back to the idea that maybe parts of the problem is practically unsolvable. Maybe humanity is on a path, and the end of that path is that we absorb the earth and kill it. Maybe that's what life forms do to planets. Maybe that's the natural order of things for a life form. I mean, who are we to say? If you can choose between compassion for your neighbour in the now, or compassion for your future neighbour, the right choice isn't obvious to me.
