Just for example:  When the US was a rising nation constructive action for social justice by the government was often possible.  Now that the US has entered rapid, terminal decline--with a national government devoted to helping corporate enterprises loot out the remaining pieces of the national infrastructure--expecting coherent, constructive government action on an intractable problem IS absurd.  

But it is worse than that.  

Ameliorating climate change would require that people quit driving around all the time.  And Americans are total addicts:  They will not willingly give that up.  

Dick Cheney, after all, said it right:  The American Way Of Life is non-negotiable.  Eventually, reality will negotiate unilaterally and America will be gone.  

The Fates are kind.