The American general population unfortunately tends not to care overly much about things that don't directly impact them in the short term. People have so many immediately pressing things in their lives, like unemployment, debt load, putting their kids through school, etc. that a thing like climate change which might have ramifications for their grandchildren are too easy to ignore.

What we really need is more science-based governing policies with respect to environmental impact, but that again relies on the public electing officials with that stance. I don't have a good solution, but it's a broad enough problem that there isn't a simple fix.