We have to change our system, so the right choice is the easy choice. Why do you think the average Frenchman has a third of the per capita emissions of the average US American. It is stuff like a clean electricity grid, working public transport, laws reducing waste and so forth, which make it a lot easier to live low emissions in France then in the US. Not that France is perfect.

The insane part is that even when Americans really try, it is hard for them to beat the French per capita emissions. Take Dancing Rabbit for example. They are an ecovillage and they really try to reduce their emissions, by having a bunch of solar, passive houses and so forth. However they are in the US and still have a per capita footprint of about 9t, which is nearly double that of the average French at 4.6t.. I gurantee you that the people at Dancing Rabbit care a lot more about emissions then the average French too, but systems just beat individual action.