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IN THE US’s first international conference on climate change, the White
House last week saw its plans for a public relations extravaganza dissolve
into an embarrassing fiasco. At the end of the two-day meeting in Washington
DC, President Bush found himself on the defensive, having learnt that politics
in the greenhouse are hotter than he anticipated.

Bush and a crew of image makers from the White House opened the conference
with a litany whose refrain was: the scientific evidence of global warming
is uncertain and the expense potentially devastating, so let’s not rush
into this. Foreign delegations probably would have accepted Bush’s argument
that the costs of cutting greenhouse gases cannot be ignored (see Comment,
21 April). But, kept in the dark about the agenda until just before the
conference, the visitors were treated like schoolchildren at a lecture.
They were allowed to speak only in private sessions, where they were handed
a ‘charter’ laying out plans and principles for international research.

As far as the foreign delegates could tell, they were expected to sign
on the dotted line without asking too many awkward questions. Instead, the
Europeans rebelled.

Western Europe’s ‘ecocrats’ are green enough to know that even if they
aren’t ready to act to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases – most notably,
and intractably, carbon dioxide – they must at least look as if they support
the idea. Being adept politicians, the Europeans held impromptu press conferences
and protested about developments faster than the White House’s media machine
could react.

The final blow to President Bush’s position came when a confidential
briefing document for the American delegates slipped into the hands of the
press. With its instructions to avoid talking specifics and to stress scientific
uncertainties, the paper scotched any chance that this so-called scientific
exchange would be seen as anything but a puppet show for the American public.

As with carcinogenic chemicals, nuclear power, or AIDS research, once
again it seems that politicians are taking the issue out of the hands of
the scientists. And even as millions of Americans celebrated Earth Day last
weekend, it became clear that the rest of the world has long overtaken the
self-avowed environmental President.