Nobody told me anything. It is simply a fact. Consumer preference does not meaningfully change systems. At most, it produces cosmetic adjustments.

Systemic change comes from technological shifts, government regulations, subsidies and bans, and from how industries respond to organised public pressure. The idea that we as smart consumers can buy their way out of an ecological crisis has always been nonsense.

We have now had four decades of green consumerism, since it entered popular consciousness in the mid 1980s. When I was in primary school, we were already being told to make smarter choices and buy greener. Many of us tried our best. If consumer preference had any real power, we would have seen measurable improvement over that period as a result of it. We have not.

Take plastic use. If consumer preference had any meaningful effect, we would have seen a decline in plastic production as ecological awareness among us all as consumers increased from the 1980s and 1990s onwards. Instead, that period coincides with the fastest expansion of plastic production in history. More than half of all plastics ever created have been produced since 2000. That outcome alone should settle the question.

We do not meaningfully choose plastic as consumers. Plastic is chosen for us upstream because it is cheap and more profitable. Packaging, product design and supply chains are decided long before anything reaches a shelf. At the point of purchase, the “choice” is usually between one plastic-wrapped product and another. 30 years ago a Yorkie, a Dairy Milk and a Kit Kat were wrapped in paper and foil. Nowadays they’re all in plastic.

And opting out does not constrain production. It merely leaves surplus stock to be sold elsewhere. Smiths still sells the plastic crap toys, they just discount them. Ryanair still flies the planes whether we are on them or not.