On Nov. 25, 13 million people on Earth’s driest continent cast votes that shifted the global politics of perhaps the most challenging geopolitical issue: climate change. Australian citizens - the world’s highest per capita consumers of coal - elected a new government to be led by Kevin Rudd, who campaigned prominently on addressing the climate crisis. Aside from the Bush administration, John Howard’s ousted conservative Liberal-National Coalition had been the only other government of a developed nation that refused to ratify the Kyoto treaty. (New Australian Prime Minister Rudd signed off on the pact Monday.) This change of power in Australia is globally significant - not simply because the Bush administration will be isolated in the upcoming Bali meeting on climate policy, which is to be attended by most nations from around the world. It may also foreshadow that, here in the U.S., climate change is likely to play an increasingly prominent role in electoral politics. Climate change was front-of-mind for Australians as they entered the polls on Saturday, with 73 percent saying it had a strong influence on their choice of candidates. This concern grew by more than 10 points during the course […]