Home of the brave? A New Scientist editorial suggests the rest of the world get on with the business of cleaning up greenhouse gas emissions without the participation of the US, now that the Clown Prince has reversed his campaign promise on CO2 emissions.

They said it would be like negotiating with Exxon. And so it is proving. With the redneck sultans of fossil fuel in charge at the White House, George W. Bush has pulled back on even the hedged commitments to control emissions of greenhouse gases that he made during his election campaign.

Last week, he announced that a new Clean Air Act would not, after all, include controls on carbon dioxide. He blamed fears of rising fuel prices and more blackouts, as well as pleading continuing scientific uncertainties about climate change.

Forget the excuses. Bush is doing the bidding of his funders and friends, and the world be damned. His statement does not formally count the US out of the Kyoto Protocol talks on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But it does mean Bush has vetoed use of the most effective mechanism for the US to meet its promises.

How serious a blow is this? Privately, American negotiators have been saying for some time that it could already be too late for the US to meet its Kyoto commitments for 2010, because of the time it would take to get a Clean Air Act through Congress and into force. Now it’s clear that Bush isn’t even going to try.

At least the rest of the world knows where it stands, and can stop the elaborate game of trying to keep the US on board the climate train. True, the US is responsible for a quarter of the world’s CO2 emissions, but that still leaves the three-quarters that comes from everywhere else. The world can get on with the task at hand–saving the planet’s climate–and is quite capable of implementing the Kyoto Protocol without the US.