People who pollute the earth should have to fix the damage they do. Failing that, they should pay heavy fines.
I mean, ideally society. Those who brought it upon the world should be held accountable, but we should have a society where the collective needs are addressed by the collective ability. Taking care of one another doesn’t mean every infraction is forgiven, and part of dealing with massive societal challenges is getting to a point where everyone is involved and benefiting without the few permitted to persist abuses.
I think people are complicit to the degree they have agency and power in a system, which means for most people they technically are complicit but compared to the ruling class that complicity is massively overshadowed.
There’s technically complicit in driving your car to work because the nearest house you can afford is so far away from your work and public infrastructure is lacking to the degree that if you want to eat you must have a car and there’s technically complicit in owning and using a private jet for pleasure or commanding a massive military power and starting senseless wars just 'cause.
To be clear I agree with you, but the orders of magnitude of offense and the means to address are so lopsided that the only blame I can place upon the proles is not assuming a government structure that grants them power.
Hell, even with recycling we continue to be gaslit to no end. The corporations that make the poisons in our blood and brains continue to make those poisons because they managed to trick those in power into thinking a little triangle printed on them will save the planet. The idea of a “carbon footprint” was produced by BP to absolve them of blame of the climate crisis.
Individuals can (and should) bike more, eat less meat, use fewer packaged goods, source locally, etc., but when the rich wage war 333,333 times as much pollution is released in 2 weeks than what an average US resident releases in one year.