Many people are hesitant to invest resources toward slowing down or even reversing the effects of climate change because they think it does not make sense if only a small portion of the population invests resources. They think it is stupid to do so until everyone agreed to do so or is forced by policy. What is the reason that some people still do so?

Some people do not want to wait until everyone agreed or a policy is in place because they want to start or increase the momentum of slowing down or reversing the effects of climate change. They don't want to wait until it is potentially too late but rather they want to do what they can right now. Some of them might hope that those actions motivate others to follow them which might in turn increase the chance of more and more people doing the same and thus likely starting a bandwagon effect. Some of the activists might also want to prevent living with a bad conscience and thus, they might prefer to spend their resources on climate change related causes instead of other alternatives.