teribus, unfortunately no matter how much you may deny global warming
it is a fact accepted, by most of the worlds scientific community.
All of the industrialized countries with the exception of US and Australia, are signatories. IF it was a still a matter of debate
it wouldnot have gotten this far. Its certainly not a matter of debate
that the arctic ice shelf has been reduced 30% since the 70's.
(I wouldnt buy shore front property if I were you)

'who did what in the past is irrelevant and what is done is done'
oh, can I use that argument in the Iraq war threads?

Id say the hallmark of a good citizen is to take responsibility for his own actions. If I lived in a village where one family left all their trash around and used up more of the commons than anyone else - and got better off than anyone else in the process - Id take a dim view if they suggested whats done is done we have to deal with the problem now..

you're also contradicting yourself. In one sentence you say global warming is still debatable - and in another that the US is making progress on the problem (a problem it doesnt acknowledge) through technical solutions...

one simple non-technical solution would be conservation, and requiring better mileage for vehicles, instead the industry has through loopholes classifying SUV's as truck bypassed the mileage requirements.

Kyoto may never claimed to be a solution, rather a step in the right direction. Thanks to Kyoto, btw alternative sources such as wind power have been improved to a much more competitive level.

as far as planning for a disaster: we do know there are 25 or so hurricanes a year in the western atlantic region -we also know this was a record year. The evidence is they have increased in intensity
(see the nova website).. I dont know what the odds are for this super volcano, but Id say its far less than the hurricane striking the souther gulf coast.

as far as planning see the Tom Ridge Interview in the (frontline.org) site - where he explains why 4 years after 9/11 most US cities still do not have interoperable communications for disaster situations
- because the federal govt is not going to choose a vendor without going through a long approval process, and it would be telling the states what to do.. PURE BULLSHIT.

Katrina was a disaster that was made worse by a failure of leadership at many levels but most especially the highest level.
What do you expect from a president who feels he was appointed by God? youd think maybe god was sending a msg with all those hurricanes.