It's an issue of hypocrisy. If a person wants to alter other people's lives, then they should set the example.
You should then rejoice at the dipping economy. Slower economic growth means less energy consumption, less production - everything you could really want. Remember that the great depression brought about a thirty-plus percent drop in the consumption of oil. Regardless, the globally averaged atmospheric temperature increased until 1940 (less production of CO2 by humans, but increase in temperature).
After 1940, globally averaged atmospheric temperatures decreased, even though the consumption of oil and coal went way up during the war and post-war period.