The Story of Studio Reflections

Some of you may be familiar with the virally popular internet hit video The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard. Well, Leonard has expanded her horizons, employing her technique to deliver us cyberspace geeks and freaks with more information about the tragically corrupt powers above us and the detrimental results that effect our natural world. Using infographic inspired cartoons to expresses processes and cycles that are peripheral to a ignorant human existence, Leonard puts the complicated into Lamens terms, letting us know what 'they' don't want us to.
The Story of Cap & Trade is another installment in the Annie Leonard prodigy which focuses on a few words we hear a fair bit and nod our heads in understanding, secretly hoping no one actually asks us to explain it, carbon trading.
I won't bore you with the technical definitions (why would I when Ms. Leonard does it so well herself: http://www.storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/)
Basically Leonard, in Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine fashion, gives us a peek through the curtains at the blaringly obvious corrupt system of corporate carbon trading. In a world obsessed with capitalising on everything possible, the human races apparent doom and demise from climate change is just another opportunity for the corporate accounts people to muster a bit of cash on the side. The system works in theory, hence it's popularity, as the masses of population are fed only the major details. However, the devil is in the details, and the details have some serious loopholes.
A major point of interest in the whole climate debate is who is ultimately responsible?
Should consumers make sacrifices and change their lifestyles to be more environmentally sound?
Or should designers overhaul their traditional processes and accommodate for the new variable of environmental sustainability in design?
Or should governments and powers commit to legislation and work on problems from the top down?
Well there's no correct answer, and the only ethos that is absolute is that only a collective effort of those 3 groups will dramatically hinder climate change processes enough to avoid environmental ruin encroaching on our existence.
We are gradually yet consistently working towards a point where environmental awareness in the first world is readily available enough that consumers understand that they can make minor changes to everyday life to reduce their carbon footprint. However, the problem extends much further than that. Unfortunately, governments, whether they work for their nations people or for ulterior false motives, have little power compared to people who have money. Oil companies are so wealthy that they can simply buy their way out of any situation and adapt any scenario to be convenient for them.
As for designers, we can take on messages like this one presented by Annie Leonard. We can adopt and apply sustainable mentalities to our designs. It is our responsibility to offer consumers a better alternative and incite an ultimate positive environmental revolution. So, conclusively, this knowledge presents itself in the form of opportunities for change, and should most certainly be seen in a positive light for designers.