Why Bother Recycling When Bezos Has a Mega Yacht?

Individual Climate Action vs Billionaires

The numbers that make you want to give up.

According to Oxfam, the world’s richest 1% produce as much carbon pollution as the poorest 66%.

Let that sink in. One percent, out-emitting two-thirds of the world.

Billionaires like Bezos have personal carbon footprints up to a million times higher than the average person. Private jets produce 14 times more emissions per passenger than a commercial flight. Superyachts burn through 500 litres of diesel per hour. That’s more than most of us emit in an entire year.

And that’s just the travel. It doesn’t account for the offshore tax havens, labour exploitation, or the supply chains built on extraction and excess.

So why bother with the small everyday actions?

It’s a fair question.

When you’re carefully sorting your soft plastics, it can feel almost laughable compared to the scale of damage enabled by extreme wealth.

At some point, we were handed the idea that all of this was our responsibility. The now-ubiquitous concept of the “carbon footprint” was popularised by BP as part of a PR campaign to shift attention away from fossil fuel companies and toward individual behaviour.

It worked.

We absorbed the guilt and internalised the message: if we just tried harder — brought the tote bag, skipped the straw, shaved a few minutes off our shower — we could somehow eco-hack our way out of a planetary crisis.

Meanwhile, emissions kept rising, billionaires kept flying, and governments mostly looked the other way.

You’re Not the Problem, But You’re Part of the Shift

No, your individual actions won’t save the planet. Not on their own.

But that doesn’t make them meaningless.

Because small actions are about what we value. About showing up in a way that says we believe in caring, in community, and in doing less harm when we can.

They’re also how change begins.

When enough people start to care out loud, it becomes visible. What once felt niche or idealistic becomes normal, and that normalisation has power.

The more sustainable habits become part of our everyday lives, the harder it gets for companies and governments to carry on with business as usual. And while top-down policy is essential, change rarely starts at the top.

Movements like Plastic Free July, Fashion Revolution, and the global climate strikes weren’t launched by governments. They were sparked by people, often women, young people, and indigemous communities, who were fed up and decided to keep showing up, even when it felt futile.

Individual actions, repeated across millions of households, can become cultural shifts. And culture, when it moves, takes everything with it. They create the social pressure that forces brands to act, politicians to legislate, and create systemic change.

Collective Power Is How We Win

If you’re angry, that’s valid. Anger is often a sign you still care, and care is a powerful thing.

So use it.

Vote for leaders and policies that prioritise climate justice. Support the brands and businesses that align with your values. Call out the greenwashing when you see it. Talk to your friends and family about why this matters. Teach your kids that the planet isn’t disposable.

Use your platform, however big or small, to remind everyone that this is our home, and we want it to be liveable.

And when you see billionaires hoarding resources and torching the sky, don’t shrink. Let it focus you.

Keep Caring

Your compost bin won’t solve the climate crisis. Neither will mine. But the mindset that drives those small actions — the belief in fairness, in responsibility, and in collective effort — is what makes bigger change possible.

Because while our individual actions may not save the planet, the culture shift we’re building? That just might.