What food is consumed and how electricity is generated can be changed though. If for instance, you wanted to reduce the impact of cattle farming in South Ameri

What food is consumed and how electricity is generated can be changed though. If for instance, you wanted to reduce the impact of cattle farming in South America, you could encourage people to eat alternative sources of meat and protein (substitutes) or tackle the problem by pouring more funding into research into synthetic beef[1]. For electricity generation, you could gradually ramp up taxes on the dirtiest sources of power generation, coupled with economic incentives for individuals and companies, which would guarantee lower monthly bills for those who switch, and guarantee a certain price for excess power that is generated to sweeten the deal. You could also introduce heavier taxes on inefficient home appliances, and subsidise LED bulbs (for example) to encourage adoption. It's not that these problems are insurmountable, it's people's attitudes and entrenched interests. (a thought experiment- if you could say for certain that sea levels would rise by some amount within say 50 years, and this would guarantee that many major coastal cities would be flooded within our lifetime unless we do x within the next decade, do you think people would do x?) Again, it's attitudes. No one wants to be out of pocket, and many people just don't see any visible downside to continue eating beef or getting their electricity from a coal fired power source. [1] http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/technology/130307/freaked-out-horse-meat-try-vitro-beef-burger http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/technology/...