However, I think if the Bush administration had taken a lead from the beginning on this issue, as the world's largest superpower and the largest polluter, we would be in a far different place than we are today.

Heck, the American economy would probably be in a better place too.

I tend to have more hope. 8 years were lost, and plenty of inaction has been had across the board, but, things are moving in the right direction (even if there still is plenty more inaction to come). Only the most ideological and ignorant, deny that CO2 is a greenhouse gas which acts like a green house gas. So I tend to think we are still better off than where we were 8 years ago. Things are moving in the right direction, new president, either one has committed to doing something about greenhouse gas emissions, so....glass is half full...

This first 8 years of the 21st century will, no doubt, be considered by future generations to be crucial squandered years when the effects global climate disruption such as the melting glaciers, killer hurricanes, record droubts, record fires in California were ignored. This is tragic considering there are concrete steps on the shelf right now to reduce CO2 emmissions.