The U.S. will continue to drag its heels on dealing with climate change and keep arguing with China. The Earth will benefit from neither.

Reuters took a poll of the dozen or so key senators on both sides of the aisle to see if they are likely to pass a comprehensive climate change bill sometime this year- and it’s not looking like that’s going to happen.

And then there’s this gem from Reuters: “The survey underscores that global warming -- a scientific finding still hotly disputed by many Americans -- could end up being set aside by politicians focusing on issues that hold more appeal to voters ahead of congressional elections in November.”

What an amazing sentence to find in a major news service.

1. Global warming? Really? Still using that?
2. Scientific finding still hotly disputed: I’m going to assume that the pun was very much intentional but that the implication that it’s around half and half believing and dis-believing global warming/ climate change was too weird to further comment on.
3. The idea that we may just ignore doing anything about causing destruction to the Earth because it’s an election year is nauseating.

"The economy has got to be given a major boost, particularly when it comes to jobs. I think that's going to be our focus," said Carl Levin (D-Mich.) "And if we can do something on healthcare this year, those two things are going to use up most of the oxygen. So it's hard for me to see how we get to the climate issue.”

While the Senate won’t be passing a climate change or cap and trade bill this year, it does sound good for them to be expanding offshore drilling and supporting nuclear development. In addition, the bill that includes those requires a certain amount of U.S. energy to be created by renewable sources: the one bright spot in a bill that otherwise isn’t green.

At the same time the United States is arguing with China (and other developing nations) over their support for the Copenhagen agreement. The general prediction already is that that discord will stall any kind of world-wide agreement in Mexico later this year. In general, China and other developing nations don’t want to use the Copenhagen Accord. The U.S. and the 100 nations who agreed to its terms do.

China says existing U.N. texts are "the only legitimate basis for further negotiations" and that elements from Copenhagen could be considered "where appropriate." Wooooooooooooooooooo.

That is not the kind of thing you say when you want to work something out.

Bickering and avoidance- that’s what politics often end up resorting to when the stakes are truly high. And here, when stakes are highest, that is exactly what politics are resorting to.

So okay, let’s pass something beautiful. Democrats, let’s ram through the health care reform and then pass whatever parts of the energy bill that everyone agrees on so that by the time the end of the summer rolls around and everyone is campaigning, well, we’ve got two beauty new bills. Go do it.

Photo Credit: azrainman (via Flickr under CCL)