Earlier quoted context omitted.
People are on track to deal with these problems (or at least are attempting to be). There are hybrid cars all over the place now, Tesla Motors is doing well as a company and there is a ton of research going into clean energy. These are just extremely difficult problems to deal with. In the meantime, the country can't just let society fail as a whole. The whole world would descend into chaos and war. The US has to do…
American cars are a teeny tiny part of world CO2 emissions. Whatever else their pros and cons, hybrids and Teslas aren't going to matter to global warming.
18.27% of global c02
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/Downloads/ghgemissions/US-G...
"Transportation activities (excluding international bunker fuels) accounted for 32 percent of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion in 2010."
almost 6% of global C02 emmisions. I think thats substantial, but you are correct that hybrids and teslas aren't going to do much. However if we help push electric vehicles and clean power production there is obviously a substantial benefit to be reaped.