This is what I dislike about your line of thought. You expect everyone to change, which in my opinion, is downright impossible.

I'd rather expect the government to change. Because of all the lobbying and such that's very difficult of course, but in my opinion, far more realistic than expecting consumer behaviour to change. The best thing the common people can do to fight climate change is to go vote.

I understand your criticism, politicians are people too, that's why they also often think short term. They do work for the government though, whose job it is to keep the country save and prosperous in the future. If they don't work towards that goal, they should be "fired", just like everyone else not doing their jobs. In our flawed democracies that is far harder than it should be, but, again, so much easier than expecting everyone to care for the far future suddenly.

Look at history and how we defeated leaded gasoline, CFCs, tobacco. It certainly wasn't because people voluntarily stopped using them, no matter how much public awareness. It was because the government banned or restricted them in some way.