Also a degree of survivorship bias.

Fossil fuel lobbyists coordinated with lawmakers behind the scenes and across state lines to push and shape laws that are escalating a crackdown on peaceful protests against oil and gas expansion, a new Guardian investigation reveals.

The folks that are "doing something" end up assaulted by police, arrested, jailed, and periodically maimed or killed while engaged in active resistance. These incidents of industry-coordinated state oppression go under-reported or propagandized into "eco-terrorism" in such a way that any kind of opposition to the industry is painted as extremist and counter-productive.

When your only legal options are "try to recycle harder and maybe buy more Greenwashed merch" and "Go full denialist, embrace fossil fuel propaganda, and roll some coal on a Prius", the outside observer is going to assume nothing is being done. Instead, real material efforts are simply being thwarted.