Well, we need radical change. Radical means "at the roots".

I have arrived at this position: real change, let alone radical change, will never be top-down. Only bottom-up efforts will lead to real change.

For one thing, bottom-up is almost guaranteed to be local. Of course people don't care--they are not rooted in a place and their choices indirectly impact people far away who they will never meet or know.

When you are connected to local spaces and your decisions directly impact the people you share that space with, you are going to care more about others.

Who do you think a person is going to care about, a local farmer who is a steward of the immediate landscapes that they share or a grower he/she will never know who works on land far away that he/she will never interact with?

As if they weren't separated enough already, massive middle men such as governments and corporations are between them in their transactions.

Even in our immediate spaces we are alienated from the land and separated from each other. People probably spend more time these days in built environments than they do their immediate natural environment. People probably spend more time these days interacting with their mobile devices than they spend interacting with the people around them.

Start by undoing the damage. Start by restoring what has been lost, such as indigenous practices.

It is not difficult to imagine what local and bottom-up would look like. A group of homeowners could decide that they are going to collectively restore the land that their homes were built on. They would have to work around zoning laws and building codes. But if they mutually agree that they are going to plant as many plants as the law will allow and not complain about wildlife colonizing neighboring properties, and if they collectively educate each other about managing the restored ecosystem and any threats it brings like pests and infectious diseases, then the law is probably going to end up being overwhelmed.

In the process people would become less atomized, community would be strengthened, and relationships would likely be more intimate and more caring.

Basically, we have got to re-learn how to work together at being stewards of the Earth. I only see it happening from the bottom up.