[rob74]

Unfortunately, it looks like the US are exporting this "proud ignorance" - see the recent victory of Jair Bolsonaro, who has been dubbed the "Brazilian Trump" because of his similar views on gun control, the environment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jair_Bolsonaro#Environmental_p...) and general firmly populist right-wing attitude. Maybe India, China and others will be able to offset the increased rate of deforestation in Brazil, but still, a planted forest is not the same as an untouched tropical rainforest...

[_bxg1]

For various reasons the American mindset is more common in less-developed countries. To a degree that's natural - when you're just trying to get your economy off the ground, it makes more sense to get out of the way of business, as opposed to when you have the world's largest and most impactful economy.

The United States is a country that started out in that situation and never totally grew out of it. It's culturally stunted, stuck romanticizing an earlier stage of development instead of growing up. It's a fifty-year-old that refuses to stop acting like he's twenty-one.

Of course, the UK right now is a counter-example to this way of looking at things.

[rob74]

Well, yes, but India and China are less-developed countries too. I know all developing countries can say "you cut down your forests centuries ago, why can't we do the same thing now?", but at least some are trying to develop without making the same mistakes...