In fact, the official bureaucratic title of this get-together is the Sixth Session of the Conference of the Participants to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, and it has attracted heads of state and government like Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Jacques Chirac, president of France. But many American observers are wondering exactly what all the delegates are doing here. The answer is probably all three, but the first two seem to predominate. Let me set the stage. The reason for the reduction proposal was increasing evidence that the Earth is getting warmer and that human intervention is playing a role.
Most scientists believe the Earth is warming, though satellite observations cast some doubt.
Still even if warming is conceded, whether the warming is significant in scale, whether it is part of natural cycles observed over thousands of years, or whether it is the consequence of the burning of fossil fuels are matters open to debate. So are the question of where warming is occurring and what will happen as a result. The science is, to say the least, unclear. They are quibbling over parts of the agreement that, while important, are not expected to change the opposition of the United States. A sink is typically a forest, whose plants trap carbon through the photosynthesis process.