BACK in 1997, when the first global climate conference was bogged down in
what seemed an inescapable morass, Vice-President Al Gore jetted into Kyoto to
rally the negotiators, who went on to write a treaty. The US entered the Kyoto
talks offering no more than to freeze its emissions of carbon dioxide. But after
Gore鈥檚 dramatic intervention the US ended up agreeing to cut its emissions of
CO2 by 7 per cent.
It鈥檚 arguable whether Gore personally made any tangible difference to the
Kyoto negotiations. But it was partly a question of perception. The fact that
the Vice-President was putting global warming near the top of his agenda did not
go unnoticed.
Alas, this year it was Gore who was bogged down . . . in Florida . . . when
negotiators at the climate talks at The Hague failed to bridge the gap between
the American and European positions. The negotiators threw up their hands in
despair and quit the talks without a deal. Since then, the Americans have been
frantically marshalling their arguments for further behind-the-scenes
negotiations. Within days of the failed meeting at The Hague, the parties agreed
to meet again in Bonn. Then American and European officials met earlier this
month in a hotel room in Canada in the hope that they could iron out their
differences in less public circumstances.
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On the American side, there is a real sense of urgency to conclude a deal
before the administration changes. George W. Bush, the future president, has
said he鈥檚 not sure there鈥檚 scientific proof that human activities have caused
global warming. With his crew at the White House and the State Department, the
US negotiating position, already unpopular with Europe, could harden still
further.
THERE鈥橲 a hint of Schadenfreude in the Washington air, mingling with the
smell of beefburgers cooking on the grill. A new wave of mad cow hysteria has
erupted in Europe. As the Europeans worry about whether beef is safe to eat, the
price of cattle has plummeted and their farmers face financial ruin. And, as has
already happened in Britain, the scientific community is being blamed for
failing to keep this new pestilence bottled up.
American officials are feeling pretty good about their choices on this issue.
They came down with a heavy boot on British beef and feed, drawing the ire of
our traditional allies. And so far there have been no mad cow cases here, making
those officials look pretty clever.
Those same science policymakers would like
to remind the world that when they opened the doors to genetically modified
foods in the US, those products were vilified in Britain and Europe as 鈥済enetic
pollution鈥� and worse.
So far, Frankenfoods are selling well here. The only adverse health effects
have been a few alleged cases of allergic reactions to a genetically modified
corn meant for animals that accidentally found its way into human food. By the
way, the maker of that corn, Aventis, is a Franco-German company.
Some here are suggesting that Europeans who are considering a beef-free diet
to avoid the dangers of BSE might try an all-American alternative: genetically
modified soya-burgers.