I remember choosing between eating, living in bad neighborhoods, putting gas in the car, etc.
A starving student with a car?! I think we've isolated the problem.
even if its as simple as stopping the massive amounts of emissions
In what way would deindustrialization and the attendant five-billions deaths be considered "simple". Heck, I'd bet there'd be some political push-back on your idea after as few as one-billion deaths.
Considering that climate engineering would cost us only a tiny fraction of cost of deindustrialization -- and has a chance in hell of actually working -- it's the approach we should be taking the most seriously.
that it is a nice idea that cannot be realized with current levels of technology
Technology? It cannot be realized because of human nature. We're going to need a transformative upgrade to that before any -ism that requires everyone to "play nice" can be realized in practice.
"The medium is the massage." -- Crazy Nigel