YES. NEXT QUESTION? Are Tree Huggers Hypocrites?

I will give conservative critics this: Adopting this stance only makes sense if you don’t believe that there’s much power in “setting a good example.” As it happens, consistent with my stance, I do not believe that there is much power in setting a good example, at least not on things that are as central to modern life as breaking apart hydrocarbon chains and using the energy to replace human muscle. I believe that movie stars can inspire idealistic teenagers to go vegan; I do not think that more ordinary-looking adults can convince the majority of Americans to suffer through discomfort and inconvenience for the sake of a hard-to-see threat.

If this is what you believe, then it’s perfectly reasonable to go about your life until the day we are ready for collective action. But I must note that this belief is at odds with the faith professed by most environmentalists in the powers of American example-setting on carbon emissions. When it is pointed out (correctly) that China and India’s billions of people currently pose a much greater threat to the atmosphere than rich Americans, environmentalists usually respond by first pointing to the public-relations noise that China is making, even as it continues to construct dirty coal plants as fast as it can pour the concrete, and second by arguing that we need to adopt these changes first, which will set a good example and give us the credibility to ask that China and India follow suit.

I find this belief sincere, touching and almost willfully naive.

Almost?