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Now President Bush's back for another four years it's amazing what is popping out of the long grass around him. One such is the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in Washington and their director of global warming, Myron Ebell.

Myron denies the existence of anthropogenic global warming. The CEI believes the greenhouse effect is a contrivance of the rest of the industrial world to enable them to regulate the abundant cheap energy that fuels the US economy. Hence Myron says that climate change science funded by the EU and Japan governments is politically skewed and only USA climatologists offer independent truth.

One such truth is apparently that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC's) Third assessment report is extreme and very unlikely. Having observed the IPCC for a decade – from its initial hedginess and lack of clarity to its now strong conviction in climate change and alarming prognoses, it certainly looks to me to have been following the path of real science.

I also struggle with Myron's conspiracy theory. It beggars belief that the other members of the G8 have the wherewithal to conspire against USA's energy profligacy or that any of them would welcome an economic decline there.

And I'd like to have been a fly on the wall when seven nations' top scientists were ordered to "go out there and do some lying about global warming".

Who are Myron's independent reputable USA climatologists? It's unlikely he includes Harvard Professor of Earth Science Daniel Schrag in their ranks seeing Schrag said that the election result was a major blow to anyone concerned with combating climate change.

Apart from a passing resemblance to Gollum, the scary thing about Myron was that he did not seem to be interested in converting us. He seemed content to spit denial in our eyes.

This denial appears to go right to the President who, despite the warning of his own chief science advisor that climate change was real, partly man-made and extremely urgent, told his electorate from the campaign stump that he would not sign up to an international agreement on climate.

Once again, America confuses freedom with licence to do exactly what it wants without responsibility.

What a sad muddle! A President in his second term with both houses on his side could have a place in history at his feet. He runs the world's largest economy and an enterprise culture that put men on the moon.

Climate change mitigation is the biggest investment opportunity around. What's happened to America that it's not running the show by now and prospering from it?

Well, it seems that the administration is in the thrall of the likes of the CEI and supports 'individuals making their own choices in a free marketplace'.

Once again America confuses freedom with licence to do exactly what it wants without a passing thought for the responsibilities that go with freedom and needed to preserve its foundations.

It's lost the plot, is missing a chance to make a lot of money, to give climate change mitigation a soft landing in its own economy and to be seen by the world community to be giving leadership in a reputable global cause.

Instead the bald-headed eagle has its head firmly in the sand and the rest of us are left to engage with the parson's nose for another four years. God help us all.

But God bless America, because when it finally raises its head to see what's going on, it will need all the help it can get. In the meantime, Myron Ebell, the director of global warming, will likely be doing just what it says on his card.