The X Factor for change

Over this past week of class starting with our guest speaker and continuing into the next class we discussed methods and lifestyles that are Eco-friendly. I briefly mentioned in class that I feel that change is for the most part impossible. I stated that the social-economic structure of not only our country but the world is really not set up for change. This to me is the x-factor no one is talking about. In class we talk about drive smaller hybrid cars, eat fresh, buy local, and all the other wonderful things we can do to help out. Professor Kleppel's way of life is for the very vast majority of Americans (let alone other people of the world) is very unrealistic and unachievable. Our capitalistic material/money/wealth based society has put us in a position where worrying about "going green" is not even a consideration.
With the use of fossil fuels and technology we have raised NPP to very high rates but yet with all this food available why is there so many who don't have access to it. Buy local however buying local cost more and most are struggling to buy the "cheap" non-local products now, so how does one do this? Basically what I am saying with out going into a 20 page paper on the matter is that talk about all the ways to change and conserve are great and can make a difference but until we talk about how fix all the social-economic issues and the systems that have created these problems, change will never truly take place. People are so consumed with the grid of just living in this fast paced world. As an older class member I can attest to this first hand. I do try to do a few thing like I have energy star windows, doors and appliance in my home and I use the energy saver light bulbs and I am very Conservative with electricity and heat/AC use, but at the end of the day my biggest concerns are to work and school and raising/providing for my kids and that is no easy task today. I would love to see life to return to the simpler days of the past and if this was possible I feel we could make the needed changes to be kinder to the Earth, but realistically that will not happen. So I guess for me at least I do what I can and I feel that if we all do something its better than nothing, but the answer lies in fixing our social-economic problems and changing the systems.