have to turn the world upside down and then the US will be "down under".  

Don't forget -- US voters did beat the Aussies to the goal by 7 years !  But the rules overruled us unruly Americannies.  We got some many freaking rules we're losing!

Send us a few cases of Aussie beer and we'll work on them rules!  

Oz is more like a state, not united states

I spent some months camped with the natives in the Aboriginal Embassy, in the rose gardens of Canberra, talked with PM Whitlam and some senators.  I often heard from the Ozzies that they were the 52nd state.  I always wondered who was 51?  Anyway, the size of Australia is more like California.  We have a lot of size related inertia here in the US.

I hope that they will stop exporting coal and build solar power desalination technology, and perhaps export that Oz ingenuity.

I imagine some of the reason we are slower to combat global warming is the number of oil, natural gas and coal companies and employees that the United States has.  I can't think of a single Australia worldwide oil company like the United Kingdom would have.  (BP)   Having the world headquarters of so many worldwide fossil fuel companies in our economy is a lot to overcome politically.  That can make for a lot of allies.

Trock - we are the world's largest exporter of coal, and most of our power comes from coal fired power stations.

Two of our largest comapnies are BHP and Rio Tinto - huge coal miners (amongst other things).

There is a reason Australia was so slow to sign Kyoto, and we still have a long way to go.

As for oil and gas companies, Woodside is growing pretty fast (though the gas industry argues it is "clean" - compared to coal fired power anyway)...