The Big Question: Is America finally getting real about climate change?

Barack Obama has launched a policy revolution which will ensure that, if successful, his presidency will be a watershed in US history. Nothing however is as consequential as his attempt to change America’s energy habits and fight global warming. The US may have been overtaken by China as the planet’s biggest current polluter. But it has by far the largest pollution “legacy” of any country. Without it, no credible international assault on the problem is possible. The George W Bush administration, following the path set by Ronald Reagan a generation before, virtually ignored the issue, in part because of its links to the fossil fuel industries, in part because of the Republicans’ belief that free markets could solve everything.

Obama’s approach is diametrically opposed. If anything, he has intensified his rhetoric on the issue since taking office. Some already talk of him as a “Green FDR”