Short-Term Society

Today's class got me thinking about supply and demand and society as a whole. After I left class I started thinking about our society and the desire that we have to get things instantaneously. We live in a world based on getting what we want now. The problem is that with the environment, there are very few "rapid rewards." If I decide to not drive today, I won't be blessed with noticeably cleaner air today, or tomorrow.
Our world revolves around incentives and interests, and these rewards normally need to be immediate. Look at anything. We flaunt faster cars, faster food, a faster internet, getting through school faster. Just turn on a TV and you will see a short term based society.
Most environmental solutions that fail are based on long term policy which gives very few immediate rewards to those who abide by it's precepts. In order to create policy that people want to and will obey we have to help them see both the immediate and long-term benefits.
For example, if our water had too much phosphorus in it, it could cause digestive problems in humans and starve fish of oxygenated water (see here). But the solution is easy and immediate. We could build a treatment plant on the river causing the phosphorus increase and we would notice a dramatic decrease in problems in the system.
Perhaps there is another way to help motivate people with long-term benefits, but I have yet to see one. We still live in a short-term, immediate benefit society, and I see little change in the future.