Israel is burning, in record heat and drought. The Hudson Bay polar bears are in trouble, and may lose all of this year’s cubs. 2010 is “almost certain” to be the third warmest year on record since 1850, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The Arctic ice is thinning. So what are we doing about climate change? Basically nothing. The US Congress will not act, so the COP conference in Cancun is expected to achieve little. Canada is doing even less than the US. Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court is preparing to roll back the most powerful US decision yet on climate change. It announced this morning that it has granted certiorari (i.e., to hear on appeal) in Connecticut v. American Electric Power, the case seeking an order compelling several electric utility companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, based on common law nuisance theories. (Justice Sotomayor recused herself; she had been on the Second Circuit panel that heard the argument below, though she had been promoted to the Supreme Court before the Second Circuit issued its ruling allowing the case to proceed.)
Meanwhile, most of the American public don’t believe the science of climate change. I wonder what it will take before they do?