Not just the Rich....
Are we less guilty? Excess seems to be the general trend amongst most of the western world. Back in the 50's the average new house size was around 1000 sq ft and had 5 or so people living in it. Today we're building training castles for 2 with no end in the urban sprawl. SUV's are pretty much the vehicle to drive, even if it is just a single person commute, got to be loaded though. We are consumer driven and pretty much everything is disposable, and it goes on and on.... In our greed, we have to thank ourselves for our own personal contributions to global warming with the excesses that we have. Funny part is that we get really upset when gas goes through the roof, or when other countries such as China or India start to raise themselves out of the third world and are now competing for the same limited resources (oil) that we felt was our own, despite its location in the world. The sad part of it is that we taken our affluence,gone to poorer countries, bought up the best and develop it with the same or greater affluence that we have at home. There is anger and resentment building around the world over foreigners coming in, buying up the best of the best, developing them and leaving nothing that the locals can afford. Arguments can be made that the development helps the local economy but that doesn't sit well with someone living in a community as they have for generations and their children can't afford to live there due to development and their wages never moved. Sadder yet, is that we do not seem to recognize that we are guests in those foreign countries. I was in a restaurant in Mexico recently and overheard a woman saying to the waiter "You don't understand, your Mexicans are really nice, they are not like our Mexicans at all..."
