One important point which I think it made in David Mitchell’s entertaining commentary on climate change is that it is usually inappropriate for environmentalists to object to harmful activities in and of themselves, rather than on account of the harm they cause to people and the natural environment:

I want to see a global warming expert acknowledge that burning oil, and the various machines we’ve invented that burn oil, is brilliant and it’s a real pisser we can’t do it anymore. But we can’t, because of facts.

Doing things like flying helicopters and blasting off into space are glamorous and exciting. While there is a tiny subset of people who aspire to minimalism and simplicity for their own sake, that crowd will probably never be large enough to drive climate policy forward in time to avert real catastrophe.