Originally Posted by gerv
I think your view of society is too pessimistic. After all, most folks don't throw their trash in the street and a good majority are willing to recycle paper, plastics and so on. This is a behavior that these people learned and, in the same way, the folks who now dump tons of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere may come to the realization that their current behavior is unhealthy or unhygenic. But if we continue to say it will never happen, then... guess what... you're right...
Incorrect. People recycle and don't throw trash all over the street because they were FORCED to do so. If you don't recycle (in most places where they have recycling) you get fined. As for throwing trash all over the place, in reality people do it all over the place in NY city (and some in Boston/LA) but only when they're sure they won't get caught. They don't do it in front of their building with their building trash because they'll be fined, but I see people litter all the time.
The majority of people will only make the change if they're forced to.