But what would it have done to the environment? Vowing no change in the US's stance on global warming—a phenomenon the White House refuses to acknowledge as real—George W. Bush said yesterday that signing onto the Kyoto Protocol would've "wrecked the economy."

Who's buttering Bush's bread? On Bush's reluctance to believe prevailing science on climate change, Norman Baker of the UK's Liberal Democrats said, "Bush is in a phone box with the chief of ExxonMobil as the last of the non-believers." According to OpenSecrets, the oil and gas industry gave Bush nearly $5 million in contributions since 1990.