Re: The problem in the US ...
The US power and manufacturing infrastructure is very clean. The problem is cars and lack of mass transit.
Everyone is talking about "cleaner cars" but they don't understand the first thing how to do it. To support even local home hydrogen generation, we have to boost our power grid at least 3x. People don't realize that, go out and ignorantly boycott power plants and other generation houses -- not realizing they are 1,000x cleaner than their own automobile for work produced.
They also boycott fission power plants and wind power -- two of the most efficient and clean power sources on the planet. They believe solar is the answer because they aren't EEs and don't know the first thing about how extremely low the yield is per investment (we're talking 2 orders of magnitude), and that's not going to change unless Einstein was wrong.
Now that's not a problem in the US. But yes, in Brazil and other countries, it's out-of-control.
Huh? You should read up on what replanting does and how much it does replenish!
On trees, there's nothing to be done here in the US. And we can't ***** other nations to conform.
But on the amount of output of our cars -- yes, it's 98% of the US' problem.
Of all carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions in the world,USA alone is emitting 36%.
That`s 4% of the worlds population responsible for 36% of CO2 emissions of the world.Now tell me you can`t do anything about it and it`s our -the rest of the world- job to fix things
Until last autumn and what happened in New Orleans,your president and government wasn`t being very active in this matter(can you say this any more politely...

).The regular answer to the rest of the world,when trying to get you along with us to do something about it(like Kyoto Protocol) was "It does not serve the interests of United States".You know,it started to get on our nerves a bit,as basically what you(your government) were saying was that you were on your way to hell in first class,and we can either join you or just watch as you drag us down with you.
At least thats what it sounded like in our ears anyway.
Fortunattely during the last year even Americans have finally started to **** up to reality.Destroying this planet does not serve the interests of United States either in the long run.No matter how much profit you would make in the process.
I`m not saying that we are clean either or that there isn`t a lot more we could and should do too.But don`t say it`s our fault and that
we are the ones not doing anything about it.
China is not paying any attention to anything,but that`s not the whole world outside of USA.
And about cars...
The problem certainly is not the cars alone.All forms of transportation(cars,airplanes,trucks,trains,ships etc.)produce 27% of CO2 emissions in the USA.California is a different case,as 57% of CO2 emissions in California is produced by traffic(again,all forms of transportation).
In European Union that figure is 25%.
But yes,the first step you could do is stop buying those damn SUVs.Is there anything more stupid than a huge 4x4 dinosaur used only as a grosery getter?
99% of the people who buy them will never drive off the pavement -which is fortunate as that oversized lard ass with those step boards would be useless there anyway.