So what you are arguing is that the US wasteful land use patterns will inevitably go to Europe. If that prediction ringed true, that prospect would scare me to the point of getting a rope and hanging myself (like that guy in Nazi occupied Warsaw upon hearing that Paris fell - and not entertaining the possibility of Stalingrad).
Fortunately, I think it is a bunch of crap for reasons obvious by looking at a map and population statistics. US-ers can afford their wasteful land use patterns because US population density is much lower than that of Europe and because it has cheap gas. Everyone else has to use their resources more efficiently. In that respect, I share grounds with the neoclassicals that competition and market forces will eventually put an end to that wastefulness - and I hope to see that in my life time.
Wojtek