The diet starts tomorrow

Imagine, if you will, the analogy of global warming to human obesity. The more you eat and less you exercise, the fatter you get. The more CO2 you put in the atmosphere, the warmer the planet gets.

The earth needs to diet. Badly. But I can personally vouch for diets being hard. Sacrifices have to be made if you want to avoid higher risks of heart attack, diabetes and being a fat bastard. Such is the way of life. Using this view, the attitudes of the head-in-the-sand brigade are pretty simple to summarise:

"The earth isn't warming up" = "I'm not fat, I'm big boned"
"The earth warming up is a natural process" = "It's just water retention"
"The science isn't complete" = "You haven't taken into account my motabilism"

All complete toss, naturally. You can argue about the finer details until the cows come home, but it doesn't stop you being a serious fat-ass who needs to cut down on the lard.

On that note, some of dear Georgie latest paltry offerings at a US-hosted climate conference are just plain laughable:

Mr Bush stressed that combating climate change should not damage the economy.
...
"We must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people," he said.

i.e. "I'm going to lose weight but I'm not giving up my cream cakes."

And he again hinted that the US would not commit itself to mandatory CO2 cuts.
...
"By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem. And by setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it," Mr Bush said.

"I'm going to lose weight, I've bought the books and the treadmill, just let me do it in my own time."

"Each nation must decide for itself the right mix of tools and technology to achieve results that are measurable and environmentally effective," Mr Bush told delegates in Washington.

"I'm not going to hassle you, so you don't hassle me. We can all do this without Weight Watchers meetings or weigh-ins or anything."

How many people do you know who have sworn they were going to lose weight to these sorts of statements and didn't? (I'll admit to being one of them) Wake up, Mr. President. Please.

OK, so it's an improvement on his previous line, but he's still living in a serious state of denial. His vision is that with the right investment, some bright American will invent a magic bullet to solve climate change (that presumably they can sell to the rest of the world). Trouble is, I don't know about anyone else, is that when you have access to low-fat mayyonaise (e.g. hybrid cars) you either end up using twice as much of it or use it as an excuse to have that extra bag of crisps.