OK, a few things first
My first niggle is, I'm not an American. I'm a citizen of the United States of America (and a few pet names, at some times, during certain political environments. Suggest fascist or similar). To call me an American is to diminish my neighbors of Canada and Mexico. Of variable worthiness, due to our own nonsense over the centuries.
OK, the last century or so. Thank heavens for the north, as cold as it is... ;)
OK, on a more serious and mixed honesty note, considering the above was purely honest, but some things I'm not permitted to speak of honestly...
The moon thing: Pure cold war. Otherwise, it'd still be cream cheese, or whateverinhell your culture called it. Not a dusty, nasty, vacuum laden version that defeated Dante's hell in logarithmic spades!
Mars.
Cold war done. Who cares.
Reality:
Sun gets hotter and hotter.
Earth gets more, erm, interesting due to our pollution.
Meanwhile, the Earth *will* become utterly uninhabitable, regardless of human or political interests.
But, zero planning is made for immediate changes, zero planning is done for short term changes, zero planning is done for long range reality.
Humanity is doomed to undergo a brief period of strangeness, with some drowning, mixed desertification, really weird annoyances, then blast furnace on steroids heat that melts the crust of this pebble.
Annoying to me is, I'm handing over this mess to my grown children *and* my grandchildren, knowing that assholes will continue to screw the works up.