How the Kyoto Protocol Was Gored

One of the more egregious of Gore's follies, while serving his country, came about in the late-1990s when the Clinton administration was debating whether or not to back the largest international environmental pact in history, the Kyoto Protocol. Mr. Gore, the big "enviro," despite common belief, was the one most responsible for Clinton's derailment of the landmark accord.

Seems contradictory, I know. Here's the most populist environmentalist speaking out about the fact that the Earth is rapidly warming -- indeed, pointing out that humans are at least partially to blame. Yet, when he had the power to do something significant at the governmental level, Gore refused to act. In fact, Gore's culpability in enviro degradation goes well beyond his family's past ownership in Occidental Petroleum, where they owned over a quarter of a million dollars in the company while Gore sought the presidency in 2000.

It was the winter of 1997 when Vice President Gore, who was in direct control of Clinton's environmental policies, flew to Japan to address the international delegation about the US position on the Kyoto Protocol. Gore and Clinton had just come off an election victory and it was time to pay back the big oil and gas companies who had handed over $6 million to their party the year before.

Gore warmed up his attentive audience by affirming that Clinton and the US public believed the Earth was in peril and that all global citizens must act swiftly to save it. But in typical Gore doublespeak, he declared the United States would not support the agreement because it did not ask enough of developing nations, even though the US is the leading polluter in the world.

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