Well you did effectively write a pre-dismissal of group action; "this community usually responds that you can't and suggests government action". Perhaps the community responses have had a point?

Leaders, and corporates today generally lobby, market or campaign to individualise more business overheads and make them an externality (ie someone else's problem, like litter or packaging). It becomes a consumer "choice", which makes it all rather one-sided. It's been a point of almost surreal agreement between major parties around the world in recent decades making the current multiple crises inevitable.

Most quality of life regulations seem to have come from hard-fought, often literally hard-fought, mobilisation in groups - that gave enough leverage - whether through civil disobedience, campaigns and demos or unionisation and strikes, and the occasional bad accident to get government action.

I see politics and group action as leverage, a multiplier, that might bring change in the timescales we need. Individual actions as being about self-respect and looking my kids in the eye rather than any chance of achieving change, as that needs a movement. shrug