I love that analogy. No, you’re not going to personally save the world by reducing your carbon footprint. But you know what you are going to be? One leaf on a tree in a forest, making that little bit more oxygen that helps collectively make the world a better place.
And that’s worth doing. Especially if you can encourage other people to be leaves too.
Something I tend to think about with regards to this sentiment is how much the individual action reflects the culture its embedded in. Despite everything, the attitude at large still seems to be that humans are entitled to their environment and it is theirs to use, the ecological manifest destiny exported by the West. Even if an individual reducing their footprint never amounts to anything, there’s a bit of an as above so below thing going on, and therefore this attitude will never be able to be excised if everyone is encouraged to just throw their hands up and declare, Well I’m totally powerless in the face of capital! Guess I’ll just keeping making a mess.