Who Really Bears the Brunt of the Climate Crisis? Rethinking Responsibility and Power

The climate crisis affects everyone, but not equally. Right-wing leaders dismiss it as an “agenda,” corporations cloak themselves in virtue signaling, and those of us just trying to live our lives are caught in the middle, shouldering the real burden. We’re the ones told to recycle, to “do our part,” while at the same time battling a cost-of-living crisis driven in part by global energy politics and fossil fuel dependency.

I approach this both as an environmental advocate and as a public relations strategist. Advocacy comes first, it’s my heart. PR is the vessel through which I turn belief into strategy, marrying values with discipline. My philosophy is simple: organisations must serve their publics, truly serve them, not just perform compliance while continuing extractive practices.

The forces destroying our planet are not everyday people. They are the leaders who deny reality and twist mass media into a weapon for radicalising false narratives. They are the corporations extracting resources to sell us things we don’t need. Yet these same organisations also hold the greatest potential to change the world. Companies influence millions of stakeholders overnight; every decision they make reverberates through supply chains, communities, and behaviours.

This doesn’t mean change is easy. Transformation requires time, planning, and pragmatism. I often get accused of “Communism” simply because I name consumerism and unchecked industry as core drivers of the crisis. But capitalism and communism alike are flawed, male-invented systems built on conquest, control, exploitation, and hoarding. What we need instead are organisations willing to act ethically, transparently, and compassionately.

Yes, I speak of cost, not because I prioritise profit, but because I am pragmatic. Shifts must be timely and realistic, otherwise they risk collapse before they gain traction. I recognise we’ve inherited centuries of industrial revolution designed to turn humans into factory and office bodies. That legacy has ballooned consumption and population pressures. But to jump straight to rhetoric about “population control” is another false binary. Humanity is not the enemy. People should not be blamed for existing.

The responsibility lies with organisations to wake up to their immense influence, to reshape how they operate, and to model the kind of behaviour that will allow society to navigate a turbulent century ahead. Humanity cannot eliminate climate catastrophe, but we can mitigate, adapt, and soften its impact if those with power choose to act.

That’s where my work begins: helping organisations take meaningful, credible steps toward change. Not through spin. Not through empty gestures. But through strategy rooted in ethics, behaviour, and the recognition that true leadership means protecting the people caught in the middle.

Climate crisis responsibility.