I'll post this comment I have saved from u/climatecypher because while it doesn't help, it let's me see some perspective:

"I'm a DC-based climate adaptation contractor for US Dept of State, UN, and some other donors and work at the national level on climate policy in developing countries. I assure you we're screwed, but not for the reasons the girl mentioned in the article, nor for the lack of lifestyle changes listed in these comments. We're screwed because developing countries want what the west has - protein, single family homes, cars, cotton, gadgets, running water, internet, refrigerators, air conditioning etc. The infrastructure being built to support these things is mind-boggling. Poor countries are going to get all these things. Economic development outside of the west is happening at break neck speeds - far faster than you can imagine. Vietnam, for example is 60 percent under 25. They're all consuming voraciously. All of them. The men want Mercedes, western accessories, and goofy under cut hair cuts, and women want homes, their own business, and western style weddings. Not only that, they're changing their visa and passport travel laws to make it easy to fly in and out of expanding airports. Dozens of skyscrapers and golf courses(!) are being built in Vietnam, right now. That's just one country of about 190 or so that are pushing for more and more growth. Globally, there is a net 1600 coal fired power plants being built right now. Literally today. There's nothing the west can do. Capitalism and economic growth are the only ways out of poverty for poorer countries. And they will get out by mirroring the west. They will. We're all doomed. I see it daily. Edit: wwwwoowww! I just got out of meetings in Hanoi and just saw this blew up. Multiple gold and silver? I am flattered and embarrassed. Thank you a lot! I'll answer the below when I get back to the hotel. Edit 2: I've read all 150 or so comments. Overall, I'd say several of you need to self reflect on why you need inspiration to "act"? Deeply consider if those actions are in response to an actual problem or in response to making yourself feel good. What are your motivations? Are your actions in response to these motives appropriate? How are you measuring results from your actions - feelings or outcomes? For example, considering the rapidly rising consumption of meat, why claim you are making a difference? How do you quantify this claim with data? Question your motives. Consider how you could measure your actions with data collection. Then consider how you can scale that up to 30 countries. You'll quickly see there is a problem... The second thing is the west is solely responsible for impacts from climate change. Let's not lose sight of this. It's the west's fault. The point I make is that people are not aware of the aggressive and vast scale that developing countries are taking to emulate the west. There about 30 out of the world's 195ish countries that are responsible for the majority of emissions. These 30 or so western countries lead the world in terms of social and economic development. The other 160ish countries see what we have and are going "all in". And they are not going to stop. Thus, since the west is doing nothing (that's you and me), these new countries are adding gasoline to a vast dumpster fire. That's the issue. The west is not changing, and the world is following aggressively. Third, we in the west are collectively oblivious to how weak and ineffective our current actions are with respect to changing our systems. We need to look objectively at the numbers. One way is to look at the IEA's reports on the state of energy 2018 report. And look at the future of petrochemicals report. Both are absolutely mind blowing and deeply disturbing. Both project huge increases in fossil fuel and plastic consumption. HUGE. Imagine all the uses of oil, gas, and plastics today - mind boggling numbers. Now, triple(!) those numbers in just 10 to 15 years. Triple. And then self reflect if going veggie or setting up the occasional solar panel is remotely effective. The issues we face are astronomically larger than we are aware. I'm not fucking around here. This changing everyday consumption as an inspiration to others is not working. It doesn't work! It has measurably resulted in zero to ineffectual gains. I say we need to be sober and realistic. Lastly, considering the daunting nature of the problems that the west has wraught, how can you scale up your actions to 30 countries? How do you make change at a huge scale, not tiny, community level things that make no measurable difference (again, understand the numbers first)? What can you do at the multi-presidential level? You need to push 30 or so western presidents and prime ministers to even begin shifting to cleaner systems. I say we are not prepared to do anything remotely close to this. Thus, my conclusion is that we are doomed. I'd challenge you to prove me wrong, but I know that we are too weak or uninterested to work at such huge scales. I will not apologize for my scorching realism."