Starting next week, planeloads of negotiators from around the globe will be meeting in Bali, Indonesia to begin mapping out a successor to the Kyoto global warming treaty inked 10 years ago and which expires in 2012. The procedings are prelminary, but the stakes are high. An unusual number of reporters and luminaries will be on hand, which means the spotlight will be a bright one.

What exactly is on the table?

The answer is that this that meeting is laying the foundations for the next major global warming deal, the one that is going to carry the world through the make-or-break period where we will determine whether or not we are going to fix the problem in time.  If the countrys of the world don't get a solid handle on heat-trapping pollution in this timeframe,  scientists say  it  will be too late to  stave off the  all too familliar  list of devastating consequences.

The economic stakes are as big as the environmental ones.

The agreements hammered out in this process will shape hundreds of billions of dollars worth of capital flows, trade, and investment strategies for the entire globe.

You'd think that America would want a seat at this table. But the Bush administration remains steadfast in its refusal to engage, and all expectations are that the official U.S. delegation will spend most of the meeting on the policy sidelines.

That's a small step up from the last few meetings, where they were more intent on monkey-wrenching. But hardly a giant leap for mankind.

The good news is that back home, concrete measures to start limiting emissions is shaping up in 25 states, and the US Senate Environment Committee is expected to report out a national emissions bill within the next few weeks.