While I agree the typical American lifestyle is hugely consumerist, by numerous measures Americans do not have the largest economical footprint.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ecologica...

So we need to put more effort into building effective mass transportation to help the populace achieve this goal right? I mean I agree, I visited London and want the US to have an equivalent mass transit system, in most of the US you cannot find work if you don't have a car. These are hard things to modify at the individual level though.

That's a fairly small part of the problem. Think of all the other stuff westerners take for granted:

- plastic wrapping on goods - frequent replacement of electronic devices - rapidly changing wardrobe - waste inherent in eating out - large quantity of meat in diet

The western lifestyle is far more expensive than, say, African or central Asian lifestyles. We consume far more than other cultures.

Improving mass transit would certainly help, but the crux of the issue is that it's a culture issue.

Well we could have more people with less consumeristic lifestyle and smaller houses, but is that really what we want?

I don't want to live in a tiny apartment. I want to live in a big house with a garage so I can start companies like Jeff Bezos.