Yesterday’s State of the Union address was disappointing.

Obama went on and on about the potential of shale gas – ignoring the way in which burning it contributes to cumulative emissions and therefore to climate change. He only mentioned ‘climate change’ to say that he doesn’t think Congress will do anything about it.

Obama is forgetting that if the world does experience dangerous, abrupt, or runaway climate change, he will be remembered as a failure, along with the other leaders from this era. They will be remembered as the people who totally failed to understand the biggest problem of the era, and who did nothing useful about it.