For decades climate-change protesters have had an easy target: the gas-guzzling Americans who emit more carbon dioxide per capita, and more as a civilisation, than anybody else. If only the US would change its ways, all would be well. It is true that America’s attitude and behaviour are global problems; but it is also true that it is a democracy exposed to argument and evidence, shifts in public opinion and international pressure – and that it may be moving its position. No such claim can be made of China. And here is the brutal reality. From now on it is China and not the US who will be the number one threat to the planet. Privately, energy experts and international climate officials know that within 40 years the Chinese will have melted the Himalayan ice-cap – with incalculable consequences for themselves and the world. And that is only the beginning. This, of course, is not being acknowledged at Bali, where some 20,000 delegates and activists have been discussing how to achieve the vital international climate-change agreement to succeed Kyoto when it expires in 2012. Nor is it top of the agenda in international conventions that discuss global warming […]