Importance of this topic cannot be overemphasized. All you wrote about is painful truth. But the thing is (and it is a good news) we can do everything to reduce our influence on the environment every day. And teach our children not with words but with our acts.
Unfortunatly, a lot of people are not educated enough about the subject, and it also depends on us, not only on goverments.
Recently, and I still remember that feeling, my colleague said he do not understand why you need to sort the garbage...