(7 of 7)
Where this burst of public and private activity leaves the Administration is anyone's guess. The E.U. and the other Kyoto signatories may continue to proceed as if the protocol is still alive, hammering out such complicated details as emissions trading, which would permit countries that exceed their required cuts to sell credits to other countries, allowing them to fall short of their own. The U.S. has not said it won't attend the July meeting, though things could get awkward if Washington has pulled out of the pact and sends its representatives simply for appearances. So far the White House has not shown any sign that it can be shamed back into the Kyoto fold, though when international outrage grows strong enough, it is possible that even the most intractable government can compromise.
It was only a dozen years ago that the first President Bush was sitting where his son is now, promising to battle the greenhouse effect with what he called the "White House effect." At that time, the science of global warming was a black art, and strategies to combat it seemed more visionary than practical. But the passage of more than half a generation has done a lot to change all that. Science appears to have cracked much of the greenhouse riddle, and both government and business are learning to use that hard-won information in ways that could eventually put the brakes on warming. If Washington wants a role in that effort, the climate-change crisis stands a greater chance of being averted. If not, a far warmer world may one day want to know why.
--Reported by David Bjerklie, Andrea Dorfman and William Dowell/New York, Ronald Buchanan/Mexico City, Massimo Calabresi, John F. Dickerson and Dick Thompson/Washington, Wendy Kan/Hong Kong, Joe Kirwin/Brussels and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles