Here in the US pundits posit that Gore is mislead, confused, seeking plaudits, or just plain wrong. The people in the rest of the world, however, see our reluctance to take a strong stand in efforts to curb global climate change caused by human pollution as unfathomable.

Listening to BBC News this morning while cleansing my choppers, here's what I heard: “'The United States in particular is behaving like passengers in first class in a jumbo jet, thinking a catastrophe in economy class won’t affect them,' said Tony Juniper, a spokesman for a coalition of environmentalists here. 'If we go down, we go down together, and the United States needs to realize that very quickly.'”

TThe Bali conference on global climate change is filled with enviromentalists from around the globe that aren't happy with us for stonewalling. Neither are a passel of the developed nations (well, except Russia...).

My teeth got clean, but I felt kind of dirty.

Here's what Al Gore said at the conference.

I began to look for evidence of journalism on the part of our paper, the Star on the subject of global climate change and Indiana's part in efforts to curb or ignore it. I couldn't find any. What I did find was a nice editorial written by Dave Keppel of Bloomington:

As the world's leaders meet in Bali to discuss how to stop global warming, Indiana's elected officials are in denial. Both Indiana senators voted to block the energy bill because of its requirement that utilities generate 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Sen. Evan Bayh was one of only three Democrats to oppose it. China has such a requirement. Do our senators want the United States to trail China in the emerging industry of renewable energy?

Forbes magazine ranks Indiana 49th among green states. Gov. Mitch Daniels flatly declared that Duke Energy's proposed $2 billion 630 MW coal gasification plant "will be built." In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Al Gore called for a moratorium on new coal plants until carbon sequestration is proven and integrated into plans. Like Southern senators of 50 years ago who fought against racial integration, Indiana's leaders who ignore global warming bring their state and themselves only disgrace.

Reaction from the TalkBack was split between two camps. Camp One: Al Gore's a money-grubbing, lying pol seeking to keep his name in the public eye (and has somehow gotten 99.99% of global climatologists in on the scam). Camp Two: What the fuck are we going to do about this because the developing nations are getting slammed right now and they have few resources to survive wicked, wild weather.

Looking up the reference to the Forbes list of Green States, here's what  I found out. With a score of 15.3 out of a possible 50, Indiana found itself at the bottom of yet another list:

Much the same as West Virginia, Indiana received across the board low marks. It had the sixth highest carbon footprint of any state, and four of its metro areas are listed by the American Lung Association as having bad smog problems, and one with an ozone pollution problem. We ranked its water quality worse than only four other states, using PIRG data.

Now, I'm as optimistic as the next gal, but the chances of getting the US (hell, or Indiana) to agree to substantive changes in policy on pollution are about as likely as those of getting President Bush to correctly say "nuclear" or me to straighten my hair. 

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