North America: Home to the World's Top Climate Outlaws

Voters in Australia ousted Prime Minister John Howard from office in Saturday's elections, and brought Kevin Rudd to power. His first act as Prime Minister is expected to be signing the Kyoto Protocol. That will make the US, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, the only Kyoto holdout.

Rudd is expected to attend the UN climate meetings in Bali next month and sound a brand new note of urgency from Australia. A total of 172 governments have ratified Kyoto, which came into force on February 16, 2005.

Bush turned his back on the treaty in 2001, and would be completely isolated were it not for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He took office after Canada had signed the accord, but has been a staunch opponent of action. Over the weekend, he used his power to stop 52 Commonwealth nations from agreeing to binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases. Liberal leader Stephane Dion charged Saturday that Harper had "embarrassed Canada on the world stage."

Welcome to North America.

Update: Just ran across these words from John Edwards, speaking at Grist's Presidential Climate Forum:

Just yesterday, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change followed up on its groundbreaking reports from earlier this year, with a warning that global warming will have abrupt and irreversible consequences if we’re not willing to act immediately. That’s more evidence than any politician should ever need and, yet, two weeks from now, America will send a delegate to the United Nations Conference in Bali with no ideas and no solutions. It is embarrassing for the United States of America to be in that position.

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