A few days ago, the outcome of the Montreal Climate Summit looked grim. The American delegation was trying to throw king-sized monkey wrenches into the discussions, staging a walkout and working behind the scenes to dissuade other delegations from taking part. Things seemed to be unraveling. At the last minute, however, Bill Clinton popped out of a rabbit's hat, so-to-speak, to throw a monkey-wrench of his own into the Bush delegation, giving a rousing, well-received speech in defense of the Summit's goals and principles while openly criticizing the Bush Administration as dead-wrong on global warming.

Clinton apparently turned the emotional tide at the Summit, and environmental groups are happily reporting that negotiators from more than 180 nations have now embraced far-reaching measures to combat global warming. For a full article on this, see: http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/121205EA.shtml#

This is not the end of the struggle by a long shot. It is only an incremental step, but there is now strong hope that the human race can get its act together to salvage a liveable planet.

Progressively,

Mac McKinney