powerful country in the world to show. HENRY JACOBY, Mass. Institute of Technology: They don't want to do anything unless we go first. They didn't create the problem. They're poor, we're rich. The gases that are up there are not their gases, they're our gases. But it is also reasonable for us to say, "Hey, wait a minute. It doesn't help for us to do this unless we have some kind of an agreement with you that when you get to particular levels of income and ability, you will also join in." NARRATOR: The arguments went on for days. As time started running out, it began to look like there would be no agreement. Still missing from the negotiations was global warming's greatest champion, Vice President Gore. RICHARD BERKE, "The New York Times": There was a real question of whether Al Gore should go or not because there was the sense that this whole thing could collapse. Some of his advisers were saying, "Don't go." Yet, on the other hand, if he hadn't gone, it might have looked like he was scared or shirking an issue that he's talked about throughout his career. NARRATOR: At the last minute, Gore arrived to try and broker a deal. After a day of intense negotiations, Gore managed to keep the Kyoto Protocol from collapsing. And in an uncompromising speech, he reminded the delegates of what he believed was at stake. Vice Pres. AL GORE: The human consequences and the economic costs of failing