Memes

I mostly agree with this. Companies only pollute as part of their process for making whatever good or service it is that they sell. They only sell those goods or services because people are buying. If suddenly everybody stopped buying and switched 100% to growing their own crops, the pollution from corporations would drop to zero. Not because they'd suddenly care about the environment, but because you don't spew out a ton of CO2 making a widget if nobody's buying widgets.

Having said that, corporations are optimized to produce as much profit as possible. If it's cheaper to run a plant on coal and they can get away with it, they'll do it.

As consumers, we have no real way to audit a company's supply chain. Even a government would have trouble doing it since most supply chains are international. If I honestly wanted to buy the most ethically-created widget out there, I'd have to trust a lot of people's stories about where everything comes from. And, because corporations know how hard it is to audit their supply chains, they're incentivized to save any bucks they can, even if that means massive pollution, massive suffering, and so-on.

Then there's lobbying. It would be nice if the government passed a law that required audited supply chains, but the government won't because it's corrupt. Evil government. But, the government won't pass anything like that because corporations will lobby against it and bribe politicians to make sure it never happens. Evil corporations. But, the money corporations have to lobby / bribe comes from their revenues, which come from people buying their goods and services. Evil consumers. But, consumers don't know which corporations are lobbying and bribing because there's no audit trail. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a law requiring audit trails...

Fundamentally, we can only do what we can do. Part of that is admitting we're part of the problem. If you own an F-150 for status, not because you move heavy things often, you're a big part of the problem. If you live in a part of the world where you need central heating in the winter, you're part of the problem. If you run air conditioning in the summer, you're part of the problem. If you use a car (even an electric one) instead of public transit, you're part of the problem. If you buy potato chips in a plastic bag, you're part of the problem. If you eat meat, you're part of the problem. If you have kids, you're a huge part of the problem. If you watch sports, you're part of the problem.