A BITTER dish” was served up to Al Gore almost as soon as he set foot on Balinese soil on Thursday last week: the United States has become the primary stumbling block to the negotiations at the climate change conference in Bali, being attended by 189 countries. After an exhausting 15-hour flight from Oslo to Denpasar, Al Gore was forced to swallow a bitter pill. Although this was actually old news.

At all 12 previous climate change conference