Why You Should Root For Clean Coal

Senator John Kerry's confirmation as Secretary of State has generated positive vibes in the environmental community and given climate campaigners a little hope. (Incidentally, does anybody else find it odd that Kerry, despite "his long record as one of the Senate's strongest advocates for climate action," as the Guardian noted, is just now divesting from oil stocks? What took him so long?) Anyway, Kerry will certainly be an important player in the Obama Administration's renewed effort to tackle climate change. But greens need to keep their expectations in check, because global warming, to restate the obvious, is a global problem. Over at Time magazine, Bryan Walsh highlights a part of the climate equation that the United States has little power to influence: