Emissions of hot air at international meetings designed to prevent Earth from warming are rising. Just last week, more than 80 heads of state convened in New York under the aegis of the United Nations to decide how to tackle climate change.

This was immediately followed by Bill Clinton’s modestly titled “Clinton Global Initiative,” at which the former president-turned-global-philanthropist (now, as when in office, specializing in disbursing other people’s money) called for the greatest mobilization of resources since World War II to attack global warming, and even consented to allow former Vice President Al Gore, no favorite of the Clintons since he distanced himself from them in his abortive 2000 campaign, to address the meeting.