"IF the USA doesn't lead, there will be no progress on climate change ... it's our national attitude towards the crisis that causes the trouble. "  I will respectfully disagree on at least two counts.  One is that many other nations in the world (especially European ones) seem *quite* proud at 'leading the U.S.' in this or that way in regards to climate change, and many other issues.  (See 'Paris Accord'.)  On a recent trip to the U.K., the trip guide couldn't say enough about field trials of wave energy electrical generation and tidal bore turbines, let alone the ever-increasing amount of gigawatts they are getting from wind turbines.

I certainly don't have the sense that the rest of the world is just sitting there like a bump on a stump, waiting for the U.S. to tell them what to do ...

Two:  Even here, lacking encouragement from the White House, individual States feel perfectly free to pursue their own course and be as alt-green and Paris-accorded as they like.