Part of Obama's persona is self-reliance. He's calm he's cool he's self-possessed. In many ways he has tried to define himself in opposition to Clinton's sometimes needy often undisciplined emotionalism.

Some argue that now isn't the time to push the green agenda - that all efforts should be on preventing a serious recession. That is a false choice. It fails to recognise that climate change and our carbon reliance is part of problem - high fuel prices and food shortages due to poor crop yields compound today's financial difficulties.