The Inescapable Treadmill may serve as a metaphor for many behaviors, including those now causing climate change. What you're describing through the choice of experiencing time contemplatively is in many ways foundational to our individual ability to consciously unhook from any behavior we'd like to stop. We can also be unhooked passively: e.g., If the factory stops bottling soda, we no longer have a choice whether to drink soda, and the "question" dissolves. And those large-scale solutions do tend to have the most powerful material effects. However, I tend to be more drawn to think about how individuals choose to live, as I believe those choices are important even when it's hard to quantify the results.