Reply #73: One important data point. [View All]

World talks aimed at reaching a protocol on global warming seemed on the verge of collapse one week after they began in Kyoto, Japan. European wanted the United States to agree to steeper cuts in pollution emissions. The American delegates and other wealthy nations wanted developing countries to make a stronger committment to pollution controls. Gore was caught in the middle of it all. He knew that without his intervention, the Kyoto talks were likely to fail. But there was enormous pressure on him not to go. He was told that the agreement might do major damage to the economy, endangering everything that had been gained, socially and politically, over the Clinton boom years. Furthermore, whatever he did would not be enough to please the environmentalists, and the business community was strongly opposed to the talks and hoped they would collapse. His trusted consultant, Bob Squier, armed with polling data, came to him and said he was absolutely convinced that it was political suicide. "You can't go," he told Gore. "If you go, I can't help you. No one can help you. This is going to kill you."

If Squier was caution whispering persuasively in his ear, Gore was not listening this time. Before he left, he met with a dozen senior administration staffers in his West Wing Office. Only one person in the room thought he should go. That was Al Gore. During the meeting, he went around the room, asking aides one by one for their opinion. Some said that the decision was very difficult and that they would not offer a position. Others were adamant that he should not go. Thank you very much, Gore said. I'm going to think about this. There was no way he was not going to Japan. He worked on his speech on the flight over, then conferred with President Clinton from his hotel room, working out the final wording before heading over to the conference room-- cavernous, windowless and beige-- where hundreds of delegates were waiting. The room fell silent as he walked in. He said that the Americans were willing to show "an increased negotiating flexibility"-- words that refueled the talks. After meeting privately with officials from South America, Japan, China, India, Braziland Europe to broker a consensus, the treaty was kept alive. As he left, he flashed a thumbs-up sign to his aide, Katie McGinty. Go get'em, he said. Call me if you need me. On the plane back, Gore walked through the cabinpumped by adrenaline, as his staff slept in utter exhaustion.