Hey look, the NAS says we really have no way of knowing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by China, India, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Indonesia, and the rest of the 155 countries who are laughing themselves silly when we tell them they have to reduce their GHG emissions, one of the best proxies for environmental development.

The good news is, this doesn’t matter, as they’re all telling us to mind our own business and saying “hell no” (again) to Western demands for their participation in the Kyoto 2.0.

Considering we have no idea how to measure GHG emissions accurately, it’s a good thing that the administration is not going to act so “stupidly” as to pay these countries billions to “lower” their emissions in 2020 and thereafter (on the basis of their own self-reporting) by not increasing them to some imaginary business-as-usual scenario that we lack the capacity to establish with any certainty — just so President Obama can run around claiming “Look at me, I’m not George W. Bush, and I got a deal!”

Oh, wait. I forgot. That’s exactly what he’s planning to do.