Curbing global warming: mission impossible?

Washington

ON climate change, we need to go beyond the tired storyline of "deniers" versus the "scientific consensus". Until it's discredited by falling temperatures, global warming is a reality. We can still debate how much has occurred and the share attributable to human activity, but the more relevant question is what - if anything - can be done about it.

President Barack Obama's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants, accounting for roughly one-third of US greenhouse emissions, shows the practical limits in a democratic society.