The research article cited by Ajit Niranjan is worth consulting directly, because a concept brought up by Berland and Leroutier, the researchers, that hasn’t been worked into the Guardian article is intersectionality.

Indeed climate change is a systemic issue which requires systemic solutions therefore focusing on what we as individuals can do is shortsighted. However, it’s also important not to discount the part individuals play, collectively, in the systems that power the climate crisis. I believe observing the disparity whereby men consume more due to their consumption habits is fascinating! Why do men consume in ways that are more damaging to the environment? Perhaps the corporations producing the vast majority of carbon emissions are actually capitalizing off of the gender dynamics in our society by marketing meat and cars as manly. In doing so, they increase profits, and we all suffer the environmental and social consequences.

To paint an accurate picture of the mechanisms leading to humanities carbon emissions, it’s important not to discount the role of power structures that are seemingly unrelated at first glance. More often than not, those power structures are used by the instigators of the climate crisis.