@alexwild

Alex - I have to take exception to your assertion that ("we"- the actual people- have little power to make the decisions necessary to fix things). It is the opinion of many that if “we” the actual people don’t take individual action to reduce global warming then all is lost. Just take the food we eat for example:

“Cutting animal-based foods in US diet by half could prevent 1.6 billion tons of GHG emissions by 2030” https://news.umich.edu/cutting-animal-based-foods-in-us-diet-by-half-could-prevent-1-6-billion-tons-of-ghg-emissions-by-2030/

“15.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from animal agriculture, comparable to all transportation (cars, trucks, trains, planes) combined.” https://ffacoalition.org/facts/animal-ag-emissions/

“A human who follows a #plantbased diet, produces 50% less CO2, uses 1/11 oil, 1/13 water and 1/18 the land, compared to a #meat eater” https://www.cowspiracy.com/facts

Please watch *Eating our way to extinction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaPge01NQTQ&t=10s

When it comes to the #ClimateEmergency - It is not hopeless & we, the people are not helpless! If we take individual action - without asking anyone!

This must see short film: “Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnyLIRCPajM tells us that “preventing run-away Global Warming is the single most important task in all of human history - and it is up to us to do it. If we don’t then everything else we have achieved in our lives will become meaningless”!

The United nation says: “Everyone can help limit climate change. From the way we travel, to the electricity we use, the food we eat, and the things we buy, we can make a difference.” https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions

It’s up to us – WE, the actual people, to save planet Earth by becoming #ClimateConsumers who actively mitigate global warming by our daily choices of who we donate to, vote for, invest/divest/bank in; what we buy, eat, drive/pedal; to degasifying & electrifying everything; reduce, reuse, recycle; & consume less. https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2018/12/27/35-ways-reduce-carbon-footprint/

Greta Thunberg @gretathunberg says - “Politicians are not coming to the rescue of planet Earth” https://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2022/10/greta-thunberg-guest-edit-politicians-rescue-planet & “Saving the world is voluntary…we need billions of #climate activists” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/08/greta-thunberg-climate-delusion-greenwashed-out-of-our-senses

You are correct when you say “The small group of sociopathic billionaires driving the destruction would like nothing more than for us to blame ourselves for what they are actively doing to us, absolving them of blame.”
But that means only that “We, the actual people, must understand their motivation & then act in a way that helps the planet.

Robert Reich @rbreich Says “A handful of billionaires now have unprecedented control over banking, the food we eat, the health care we can access and, now, the information we receive…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_sjfchNsiM&t=15s

William Stanley Jevons said: “Value is created by the consumer, not the producer… the consumer is the ‘ultimate regulator of demand’” - https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/11/how-humans-became-consumers/508700/