Confederacy Of Dunces

We know the problem regarding climate change in the USA.

The right wing is hunkered down and burrowed into corporate wishes, corporate funded research, pure obstinate stupidity and denial, a redundant and endlessly cranking hate radio media frenzy, and bible thumping end of world reactionaries. And then there was Bush.

These factions are keeping good environmental proposals and actions from not happening.

Add into this mix an American public that thinks France is a city in Canada, is clueless about American history, and is fixated on Hollywood star culture and voila, we have the confederacy of dunces.

Guardian UK: US inertia could scupper world climate deal in Copenhagen, says expert

US ignorance about the risks and reality of global warming could sink hopes of a new global deal to control greenhouse gas emissions at December's climate talks in Copenhagen, an advisor to the German government has said.

Professor John Schellnhuber, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said the US was "climate illiterate" and that the rest of the world may be forced to agree a new deal without it.

"Nobody should dream of the possibility that numbers and targets for countries will be sealed in Copenhagen," said Schellnhuber, one of the world's foremost climate scientists. "If the US doesn't move then nothing will happen."

He added: "The US in a sense is climate illiterate. It is a deeper problem in the US, if you look at global polls about what the public knows about climate change. Even in Brazil and China, you have more people who know the problem, who think that deep cuts in emissions are needed."

To convert a global deal on climate change into US law would require a two-thirds majority vote in the US Senate, something that many in Europe believe is unrealistic given Obama's ongoing troubles with healthcare reform. "It just may not be possible to overcome the American inertia," Scellnhuber said.