Ahh, those perpetually cheery Brits. Lest you thought you’d seen it all in the realm of the bad-news headlines on the environment, this weekend’s U.K. Observer ran this gem: “Mission to Save Planet Is ‘Failing.’” The story is about the World Economic Forum delivering a faling grade to the world – yes, all of us – on protecting the environment and staving off global warming.

The world scored a two out of ten possible points on environmental issues.

The World Economic Forum is the foundation that hosts corporate hotshots and political bigwigs in Davos, Switzerland, each year. The Wikipedia entry for the WEF notes that “it is seen by some critics as an unelected, non-democratic, elitist, secretive world Senate,” though the WEF’s own web site calls the group an “independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world.”

The environmental report card is part of the WEF’s Global Governance Initiative’s efforts to track the world’s progress on key issues, including peace, poverty, and hunger. Last year the world got a three out of ten on environment, so this year’s score of two is indeed bad news.