I believe you that "they" discuss a lot of things, but the actions and the impact of those discussions in the actual problems are yet to be seen.

There seems to be little acknowledgement of the problems, especially in public.

I haven't seen any Media article or government policy addressing at least the desert pollution, recycling programs and danger driving (not to mention all the other urgent issues).
These issues are simply not addressed because people don't care or don’t have a clue of their existent or their consequences in their lives... maybe they are not educated, but that's why the government is there for, to educate citizens and to implement policies (sometimes so simple) to tackle big problems... the rest would follow with time, as you say!

I still believe this society is founding themselves with the wrong values and Government plays an important role to change this... if they just knew it!