"The smaller nations pollute far worse, on a per capita basis, than the USA at this point in history."

That isn't actually true. The pollution that really matters isn't about being dirty and messy and all that, it's primarily about burning fossil fuel, and that applies if its done in a nice clean way so you don't see smoke and get smells. And the citizens of the USA do min fact burn far far more fossil fuel per head than people anywhere else, both for transport and in other ways.

There are other factors affecting how the climate changes, and we don't understand them yet. There are other things that cause cancer as well as smoking cigarettes. For years the cigarette manufacturers tried to use that as a smokescreen to confuse people about the evidence that smoking kills. The same is happening with the petrol companies today and Global Warming.

Noone's got the power to force the USA to make the massive changes that are going to need to be made, except the Americans themselves. If there is anything that the rest of us can do to help Americans in changing their own society and economy, it's up to those Americans who are fighting to do that to tell us.

That leaves us with the job of changing ourselves, and that includes fighting any tendency to see the down-side of America as any kind of role model. Which leaves lots of things to admire and emulate.