I am not talking about sacrifices for its own sake. What I am saying is to do things that reduce greenhouse emissions. The problem needs to be tackled in top-down (government policies) and bottoms-up (where consumers make behavioral changes).

Europe seems to be more in tune with top-down. In the US, bottoms-up seems to be the only option. Once people change their purchasing decisions - e.g. stop buying anything that comes in individual plastic packing etc, companies will be forced to make changes. Another example - stop giving non-sensical loot bags in b'day parties or stop taking or giving gifts altogether.