I think you are right. The US does what is in their own interest because they can, not because it is right.

Sure there is something wrong with unchecked consumption, it is not sustainable. At some point the system will crack and implode. Perhaps just like Suddam's Iraq, which was equally unsustainable. Ofcourse the US as a country is a wee bit more resiliant than the facade of a country Iraq was trying to be with Saddam at the helm

IMO if countries of the world take unilateralism to heart, we are all ****ed. The only way the situation is going to improve is for everyone to work with the UN, it is still the only institution the world has that can do what it does. I don't think that it can do all this in its present form however (those veto powers really scew up everything) but it is something to work with.