VESTIBULE: THE INDIFFERENT

The 50,456,062 Americans who voted to elect George W. Bush president in 2000.

FIRST CIRCLE: LIMBO

The 62,039,073 Americans who voted to re-elect George W. Bush in 2004.

SECOND CIRCLE: THE LUSTFUL

DIRTIEST POWER PLANTS
SO₂ polluters—Bowen (Georgia), Gibson (Indiana), Keystone (Pennsylvania); CO₂ polluters—Bowen (Georgia), James H. Miller Jr. (Alabama), Scherer (Georgia); NO_x polluters—Crystal River (Florida), Four Corners (New Mexico), General James M. Gavin (Ohio); mercury polluters—Martin Lake (Texas), Miller (Alabama), Scherer (Georgia).

THIRD CIRCLE: THE GLUTTONOUS

BIG OIL
More than seven billion barrels a year: America's worst habit.

BIG AUTO
The second-largest source (after power plants) of CO₂ pollution, creating nearly 1.5 billion tons annually.

FOURTH CIRCLE: THE AVARICIOUS AND THE PRODIGAL

BIG AGRICULTURE
Archer Daniels Midland. Monsanto, Smithfield Foods, StarKist. Tyson.

BIG MINING 
Don L. Blankenship (C.E.O.. Massey Energy, advocate and bankroller of pro-coal groups and candidates). BHP Billiton, Freeport-McMoRan, Peabody Energy.

FIFTH CIRCLE: THE WRATHFUL

BIG CHEMICAL
Dow, DuPont.

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SIXTH CIRCLE: THE HERETICS

Bjorn Lomborg, Danish author of The Skeptical Environmentalist.

SEVENTH CIRCLE:  PHLEGETHON-THE VIOLENT

BIG DEFENSE
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman; Donald Rumsfeld, former secretary of defense (2001-6); Robert Gates, secretary of defense (2006-present).

EIGHTH CIRCLE: THE FRAUDULENT

PANDERERS AND SEDUCERS
Michael Crichton, novelist, whose State of Fear questioned the science of global warming (and was also dull); Rush Limbaugh, radio host, global-warming denier.

FLATTERERS
George T. Wolff, E.P.A. science advisory board.

SIMONISTS
The Re-elected Dirty Dozen-ers: Officials who consistently vote against the environment, according to the League of Conservation Voters: Representative Dan Boren (D-OK). Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Representative Deborah Pryce (R-OH). Representative Heather Wilson (R-NM).

GRAFTERS
The Defeated Dirty Dozen-ers: Senator George Allen (R-VA). Representative Bob Beauprez (Colorado governor's race). Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT). Representative Tom DeLay (R-TX; resigned), Representative Katherine Harris (R-FL). Representative Bob Nev (R-OH; resigned), Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA). Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA). Senator Jim Talent (R-MO). Representative Charles Taylor (R-NC).

SOOTHSAYERS (SORCERERS AND FALSE PROPHETS)
Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas, authors of the report Lessons and Limits of Climate History: Was the 20th Century Climate Unusual?

FALSE COUNSELORS
James L. Connaughton, chairman. White House Council on Environmental Quality; Richard Lindzen, M.l.T. meteorologist, author of April 2006 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "Climate of Fear.

SOWERS OF DISCORD
Robert C. Balling Jr., climatology professor, Arizona State University, and recipient of more than $200,000 in funding from coal and oil interests over the past decade; S. Fred Singer, president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, former consultant for the oil industry.

COUNTERFEITERS AND FALSIFIERS
Philip Cooney, former chief of staff, White House Council on Environmental Quality;
George Deutsch, 24-year-old Bush NASA-public-affairs appointee, who limited reporters' access to a top climate scientist and doctored publications, resigned in February 2006.

NINTH CIRCLE: THE TRAITORS, STUCK IN THE FROZEN (AND OIL-SLICKED) LAKE COCYTUS

Dirk Kempthorne, secretary of the interior, former anti-environment senator and governor of Idaho; Gale Norton, former secretary of the interior, and, prior to that, lawyer representing mining, timber, and oil companies.

HELL

Satan, and in his three mouths: Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), former chairman of the Senate Environment Committee, tireless denouncer of global warming as "a hoax" perpetrated on Americans by alarmist liberal media; President George W. Bush; Vice President Dick Cheney, former Halliburton C.E.O.. convener of top-secret energy task force, which met with oil and gas executives.