► Evidence 2: Environmental awareness and action manual for dummies

Fallacy of Personal Insignificance: People believe their personal actions have no impact on the environmental crisis. This lie causes inaction, motivating the idea that only governments or corporations can make meaningful changes. This fallacy thrives on resignation, often promoted by industries resistant to change, saying collective inertia is better than individual responsibility.

Greenwashed Minimalism: Brands sell minimalism as buying eco-friendly products instead of reducing real emissions, it's a form of disguised sustainability. Business aim to keep sales while "being green". F.ex, a "green" water bottle is still consumerism if people replace their perfectly functional bottles.

PERSONAL

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GREENWASHED MINIMALISM

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FALLACY OF PERSONAL INSIGNIFICANCE

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Populist Denial: Some political leaders dissmiss climate change, labeling it a lie to avoid economics. This manipulation creates public doubts and limits environmental progress. Protecting economic interests linked to fuels or not regulated industries.

Slacktivism in Social Media: Liking or sharing posts is not a real action, this leads to complacency while contributing to no change. RRSS profit from users, maintaining the illusion of activism without having meaningful change.

CITIZEN .

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SLACKTIVISMIN RRSS

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POPULIST DENIAL

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Sustainability proposals: Firms conduct one day campaigns like Earth Day tree planting, while avoiding systemic issues in their operations. The back intention is to have public relations efforts to distract from broader environmental negligence.

Corporate Greenwashing: Companies advertise "carbon neutral" initiatives while having emissions in the process like badly managed reforestation. They want to maintain profit margins while being sustainable.

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CORPORATE GREENWASH

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SUSTAINABILITY PROPOSALS

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EcoFADs: Marketing campaigns label products as "green" without real benefits, for example, "biodegradable plastics" often degrade poorly in natural environments. This is done to mislead environmentally conscious buyers.

Planned Obsolence: Producers intentionally design products with short lifespans to drive sales, generating more waste to maximize profits sacrificing of sustainability.

CONSUMER

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PLANNED OBSOLENCE

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ECO FRAUDS

Lewandowsky, S., et al. (2017). "Debunking Myths in a Post-Truth World." Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Stahel, W. R. (2016). "The Circular Economy." Nature. Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2021). "The Role of Circular Economy in Tackling Climate Change." UNEP (2018). "Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns." Whitmarsh, L., et al. (2021). "Behavioural Insights for Climate Action." Nature Climate Change. OECD (2019). "Consumer Behavior and Environmental Policy."

REFERENCES

Action: Change yout focus from BUYING NEW STUFF to repair, reuse, and reduced consumption. Implementation: Join repair cafes or recycling workshops to teach and learn practical skills with family and friends. Effectiveness: A 2018 study by UNEP confirms that reducing consumption directly minimizes environmental footprints.

Avoid Greenwashed Minimalism:

Action: Educate people on the effect of collective small actions (reducing plastic waste in households leads to decreased demand). Implementation: Social campaigns using and showing measurable impacts of small efforts. Effectiveness: Studies show this actions, when added, can significantly lower emissions.

Fallacy of personal insignificance:

Action: Encourage community face to face engagement, such as joining local environmental initiatives or voting for sustainable policies. Implementation: Create platforms to track volunteer hours or donations related to environmental projects. Effectiveness: Studies say that active participation increase environmental awareness and policy advocacy (O’Brien et al., 2018).

Slacktivism in social media:

Action: Promote climate literacy and fact-checking platforms to avoid pupulism and fake news. Implementation: Public awareness campaigns highlighting IPCC data and taking down tons of myths. Effectiveness: Reliable scientific communication reduces misinformation (Lewandowsky et al., 2017).

Populist denial:

Action: Encourage businesses to adopt transparent environmental, social, and governance reporting. Implementation: Fight for certifications which require checkable environmental commitments. Effectiveness: Transparency builds trust and holds companies accountable (Eccles et al., 2017).

Corporate greenwashing:

Action: Introduce circular economy models in industries and business. Implementation: Promote closed-loop systems in manufacturing to recycle materials and create a better Shared Value and value chains in business. Effectiveness: Circular economies reduce waste and conserve resources (Stahel, 2016)..

Sustainability proposals:

Action: Support right to repair laws and seek towards durable goods. Implementation: Establish repair hubs for any product, also, have incentives for purchasing long-lasting items Effectiveness: Promoting durability reduces waste, as shown in studies on consumer electronics (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2021).

Planned obsolence:

Action: Educate consumers on recognizing genuine certifications. Implementation: Develop accessible tools to verify product claims. Effectiveness: Informed consumers drive market shifts toward authentic sustainability (OECD, 2019).

Eco frauds: