Billions of ordinary humans still consume much more fossil fuels and meat than the super rich. And that consumption is giving unsustainable industries even more money for lobbying and to stay profitable.

This sense of futility is whats keeping their business model alive as long as possible. It’s what’s giving them the largest benefit they could possibly hope for. Don’t do their lobbying work for them.

If there were no billionaires, our unsustainable consumption would still drive climate change, just a bit slower. Just pointing at them isn’t sufficient. We need political and individual action.

The argument also kinda sounds like “well if there are people that literally kill thousands of people, then me hurting a few people in my life doesn’t make much of a difference.” Which is a quite silly.

Sustainable technologies like public transport, EVs and meat alternatives also need demand to grow, to become normalized, widely accessible and cheaper through scaling. Early adopters have a much larger effect on the overall trajectory than late adopters.

If progressive people just do what’s practicable to have a positive impact where they can, that has a large effect. And many already do. We need more of that.