Until recently, the USA's foot-dragging was about the only thing stopping the Western World from jumping off a cliff over the increasingly preposterous global warming hoax. But with the last grownups scheduled to leave Washington next month, Europeans have been forced to drop the sanctimonious posturing and defend sanity.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has been keen to promote herself as a tough actor on climate change, but with a new EU climate deal in the making, she's issued a new caveat: It must not jeopardize German jobs.

Merkel used to exploit the hoax with the worst of them, even traveling to Greenland to pose with melting ice. But it's becoming clear that moonbattery has a price.

According to an unpublished report by the economy ministry, Germany risks losing more than 100,000 jobs if the EU were to force industries to pay for pollution rights that are currently free.

Another study by the Muenster-based EEFA research institute pointed to increased costs stemming from reforming pollution rights, making Germany's key industrial sector less competitive and threatening up to 300,000 jobs by 2020.

Infuriating environmentalists who couldn't care less about human suffering, Merkel now says of the impending EU climate deal,

It must not take decisions that would endanger jobs or investments in Germany.

Germans love Comrade Obama so much — maybe they would be interested in a trade.

On a tip from Charles O. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.