When it comes to climate and energy, Gates is a radical consumerist. In his view, energy consumption is good - it just needs to be clean energy.

If you think Wall Street firms have it good, you haven't looked closely at Big Oil.

The coal industry is an even larger part of the Australian economy than it is of the American, and it has an enormous amount of political power.

Bloomberg's $50 million is not going to revolutionize the electric power industry. But his willingness to fight is already inspiring others to see Big Coal differently.

In reality, studies show that investments to spur renewable energy and boost energy efficiency generate far more jobs than oil and coal.

Americans don't pay much attention to environmental issues, because they aren't sexy. I mean, cleaning up coal plants and reining in outlaw frackers is hugely important work, but it doesn't get anybody's pulse racing.

Geoengineering - the deliberate, large-scale manipulation of the earth's climate to offset global warming - is a nightmare fix for climate change.