This is only as true as saying that any personal attempt to minimize your carbon footprint is self-harm. But here, it has other implications as well: society needs to "agree" that Bitcoin has value. If Bitcoin starts (rightfully, IMHO) being seen as a "dirty" good, it becomes less desirable on the market even if I, personally, were indifferent to the carbon footprint.
> The Lightning Network is running now
What volume of transactions is it doing? (This isn't rhetorical, I genuinely haven't been able to find this out and I'm curious)
> When I first heard of it in 2011 it was being branded as a ponzi scheme
Yep, I remember those days. The difference was, that perception was mostly wrong at the time. The community was filled with people who genuinely wanted to make Bitcoin happen. Sure it would make them rich in the process, but at least they were willing to put in the work.
Once Bitcoin became relatively mainstream, grifters moved in and it was tragedy of the commons; all the goodwill was capitalized by scammers and ICO promoters. People who were involved in the early days became either disillusioned or displaced and lost control of the brand. It's hard to recover from that sort of public image problem without a central authority to control the brand.