Capitalism stops at nothing, but the end it apparently in sight.

I agree it's interesting, and I agree that a lot of people's response is through the lens of the personal, but I disagree that people's response is for others to "go fuck themselves" as you so eloquently put it. You are assuming that just because they haven't sold their SUV and paddled to Japan on a raft of recycled Coke bottles to help that they don't care. I think that's both unfair AND unrealistic.

I believe that we (all of us with some consciousness about the links you so clearly and accurately identify here) need to do a better job of socializing those links, and preferably in a way that invites people to see a path for themselves to make some changes in their lives. It's not easy making big changes that go against the tide of commerce, politics, culture, and language and to assume that people are unfeeling because they haven't gone as far as you would like them to is both harsh and self-limiting. From my seat the current warm tidal movement of information across the planet seems to be driving a different set of reactions which includes empathy, support, outrage, fear, and inspiration. None of those are the same thing as thinking others should go fuck themselves.

But yes, interesting for sure.

Thanks Bob.
You're right. there's gentler ways I could be communicating when discussing this stuff, for sure. I just get tired of trying to be gentle sometimes. other times i try hard to be.
I do think there's a bell curve of "caring" or whatever word we might use for it. On one extreme, or perhaps not even on the graph, is "ignorant of issue." but then there's "go fuck yourself". depending on level of optimism, which you seem to have more of than i, that tail is way out, a few standard deviations from the mean. then there's "i really care and my heart aches for those poor japanese/libyans/salmon/whatever, but i'm powerless to do much, sorry", and then, y'know all the way up through "i'm changing my lifestyle somewhat in order to help" and further to "i'm sacrificing a lot of my own comfort to help" and on up to mother theresa types. and then to me. ha. just kidding.
but, you get my drift. i think the world has all types and you are probably right that the peak of that curve is centered further toward the "i care and i'm doing all i reasonably can about it" end of the graph than what i implied in my original post. BUT: i do know, just from reading youtube comments and other internet bullshit and overhearing random dipshits out in the world that there ARE some folks who really seriously don't give a damn. maybe that's for a good reason, like a rainforest activist stole their lunch money when they were a kid or they're just so fucked up from other kinds of abuse and bad karma, but the fact remains that they really don't care much at all. now the number of those types out there is debatable, and it may be decreasing all the time with that warm tide you mention, but it's most definitely nonzero still.
And I can't resist, to again be kind of an asshole about it, quoting, or paraphrasing, Derek Jensen, who wrote once that future generations won't care whether you recycled, or drove a hybrid, or never took plane trips or didn't eat meat or turned off the lights or only had one child or whatever other conscious change in the way you live you made in order to help. All they'll care about is whether in their time there's enough for them to survive on. I guess this doesn't do much good in explaining to people how they might live more responsibly but maybe it does help to put into perspective what's at stake.
I dunno. I'll stress though that I'm not perfect, not at all, and I'm often throwing stones in glass houses. Sometimes I manage to lob softballs and hopefully that helps.