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I suppose I am slightly more optimistic that you in that I believe that we in the west still live in democratic countries and if enough people vote for something they can get it.
Reducing our impact on the planet requires total behaviour change at the individual level that can’t just be imposed from the top.
Now of course if there is an accompanying political plan to transition to a centrally planned economy this all changes, but I don’t see the democratic desire for this.
NickCJ
I think it’s pretty ridiculous to lump “western consumers” and the “US Department of Defence” together as if they have equal power.
As @Oliver Schick rightly says, and as always with more eloquence than I, it’s a complicated web of supply and demand. But I disagree with your dismay at the idea that change must be made from the top. This issue is absolutely skewed in that way. I’m not saying it’s just the shareholders of those 20 companies – it’s an elite business class, dealing directly with governments in hundreds of millions of pounds, to do everything they can not to allow change.
What does it matter if western consumers all want fully electric cars right now in 2019, if the car manufacturers have no intention of actually making affordable electric vehicles and the governments no intention of creating the infrastructure required? We can make some choices and choose not to drive at all, ride share etc but we do not have equal power. Capitalism ensures that we do not have equal power.
The Guardians in depth series this week has been really great if anyone hasn’t seen it yet. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/series/the-polluters