The rest of the world can't afford to catch up with consumerist USA as a prerequisite before making transformational changes to greener economies.

As much of the world rises out of poverty and becomes more consumerist, somewhat like USA, the US gets tired of being blamed for climate change; a big segment of US is tired at least.

US government now turning it's back on attempts to address climate change, but much of the rest of the world is realizing that first catching up to US consumerism can't be a prerequisite for addressing the problem.

China is taking big steps to make it's economy more green. China's over 1 billion people can't afford to catch up with US consumerism before transformative changes are made; such as a surprisingly large percent of cars, sold in China, are electric. US bans imports fearing decline it it's auto industry which changes more slowly.

Where the energy comes from is still a big question, but transformational changes are being made there as well, in much of the world.

I still like life in USA with it's freedom to differ from mainstream society, but that freedom also can lead to gridlock of plans for transformational change. Rail transportation, solar, wind and nuclear power stall, in USA, do to gridlock between special interests. NIMBY fears may have sunk USA's past attempts to transform to a greener future.

I still hope we can somehow figure out a good road to the future.