The BP oil spill is the grand example of man's impotence in dealing with grand scale events. It is just beyond man's ability.
First man could do nothing to stem the oil flow. A man converted a giant ship that could clean up all the oil in a few days, it didn't work. Even Kevin Cosner’s, of Waterworld fame, invention proved inadequate to deal with the problem. Oil kept flowing, and man kept failing.
Then God, who had created oil eating bacteria, came to the rescue. The biggest oil spill in U.S. history became a non issue because of oil eating bacteria that existed since the beginning of time.
Dealing with GLOBAL climate change, is exponentially more difficult than dealing with some puny oil sill, that man was totally incapable of doing.
Why would anyone with a brain think we could affect climate change? If you can't change a thing, then why worry about it at all?
Did they ever let Costner put his machine in the water? (actually not his invention he was just an investor) I recall that when he first showed up the FedMob put roadblock after roadblock in his way even though he was going to pay for the whole thing. Just like the FedMob rejected a fleet of the world's most effective oil skimmers from Europe because they didn't belong to a U.S. union. (the Netherlands specifically IIRC)