The decision by President Bush to reject proposals to cut his country's greenhouse gas emissions may well have ended any chance of success for the Kyoto protocol on global warming.
Environmentalists contend that greenhouse gases are warming the planet, causing sea levels to rise.
If that's correct, the people of the low-lying Pacific islands will be the first to suffer the consequences. At the very eastern end of Papua New Guinea, the people of one remote island group are already suffering. Their food crops are threatened by rising seas, and there's genuine fear their islands are sinking. Well, hardly anyone, even the most seasoned, analytic analyst in the world, anticipated last month's decision by President Bush, to reject proposals to cut his country's greenhouse gas emissions. And reject Kyoto.