I’d say the answer is in the middle. I see the world on fire and I also have a lot of anxiety because I can’t really do much.

But I did what I can personally change. I moved my house off of gas to a dual fuel heat pump with gas only in extreme (<15 degrees F) cold. I moved our water heater off of gas, and we just bought an EV to replace our aging (120k mile) gas car. I also use the bus and train whenever possible (however my wife works far away from transit lines so for now we need one car). I would be doing solar too but we don’t have much space on our roof, and estimates said we’d barely cover 20% of our usage. (Far north so only for a few months too)

When I purchase things I try to think about what would be the more moral choice, and I usually go with that.

Beyond all of that, I vote in every election, and that’s about everything I can do.

And that’s helped my anxiety. I’m about as carbon neutral as I can be, I encourage my friends and family to make carbon neutral choices, but after that I put down my blinds and try to ignore things. I’m not president, I can’t change the world, but I at least changed my family.

And I’d say if everyone who felt the same hopelessness started making similar changes it would start to make a difference, showing there’s a demand for green alternatives.